The BEAT News March 13, 2013

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Learn to Certify a Vernal Pool

Saturday, March 16th, 5:30 pm
YMCA, 292 North St., Pittsfield, MA in the auditorium

Investigate vernal pools and the fascinating creatures that depend on them. Jane Winn of Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) will offer a free audio-video presentation on the identification of vernal pool amphibians and invertebrates, and a training workshop on how to document a vernal pool for certification.  Jane will have video and audio of woodfrogs “chorusing” , slides of spotted and Jefferson salamanders and their egg masses, as well as video of fairy shrimp swimming.  The state certification process is implemented almost entirely by volunteers and provides regulatory protection to these fragile ecosystems.  During the workshop, Jane will take you through the certification form, section by section, and also look at the new on-line reporting system.

BEAT works with you to protect the environment for wildlife. Please help us protect vernal pool’s and the animals that depend on them by learning how to certify a vernal pool.

For more information contact Jane: jane@thebeatnews.org 413-230-7321.

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The City of Pittsfield Board of Health reminds residents that requests to have their property excluded from area pesticide spraying administered by Berkshire County Mosquito Control Project must be made to City Clerk, Linda Tyer by March 31, 2013.

 

Property owners seeking exclusion must supply the City Clerk with a certified letter providing the name, address, telephone number of the person requesting the exclusion and the address of the property to be excluded.  Requests are submitted to City Hall, Office of City Clerk, 70 Allen Street, Pittsfield, MA.

 

The project may perform ultra low volume mosquito control pesticide applications during the months of June through September, if it is determined necessary to control the mosquito population.   In addition to the written request, property owners seeking out of the program must clearly mark at least every 50 feet with orange surveyors tape or another department approved marking device which clearly defines the area of exclusion.

 

Information about mosquito disease and how to protect yourself and home is available on the City Website www.cityofpittsfield.org under the Health Department.  Any resident requesting further information on pesticide application or to obtain application schedules and locations can call the Mosquito Control Project at 413-447-9808 Monday thru Friday from 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM or email berkmc@bcn.net

 

BEAT Note: Thanks to City Councilor Christine Yon for including this announcement in her email to residents this week.

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Hearing on Banning Styrofoam Containers in Pittsfield

April 1, 2013 at 7:30 pm

Pittsfield City Council Chambers (2nd Floor)

City Hall, 70 Allen St, Pittsfield

The Pittsfield City Council sub Committee of Ordinance & Rules entertained a citizens petition to ban Styrofoam Containers in the City of Pittsfield at its February 4, 2013 meeting. After hearing from only a few members of the public the Councilors on this committee felt that more public input was needed.

 

April 1, 2013 at 7:30 pm in City Council chambers will be the next scheduled Ordinance and Rules meeting. The Styrofoam ban petition will be discussed at this meeting. We are asking for any one in the community that would like to voice their opinion on this proposed ban to please attend this meeting. This is a less formal setting then a regular City Council meeting and the public has more time to speak at the open microphone portion of the meeting.

 

If you have any comments or questions before the April 1st meeting, feel free to email  any member of the O&R committee.

 

Respectfully,

Councilor Melissa Mazzeo

mmazzeo@pittsfieldch.com– Chairman of  O&R

 

Jonathon Lothrop—vice Chair

jlothrop@pittsfieldch.com

 

John Krol —–jkrol@pittsfieldch.com

Chris Connell—  cconnell@pittsfieldch.com

Barry Clairmont—–bclairmont@pittsfieldch.com

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BEAT and HVA set Housatonic River Cleanup Dates
Help us get the trash out of our river!Organized by Berkshire Environmental Action Team(BEAT) and the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA)
Save the dates:

  • Saturday, May 11, By canoe leaving from Fred Garner Park AND Decker Landing, New Lenox Road, Lenox
  • Saturday, June 22, Wahconah Park parking lot on Wahconah Street, Pittsfield
  • Saturday, July 27, Wahconah Park parking lot on Wahconah Street, Pittsfield
  • Saturday, August 10, Housatonic River Walk at the end of Church Street, Great Barrington

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Bill to Create Oilheat Efficiency Fund Will Reduce Emissions, Save Money

By Natalie Hildt, Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships

 

Massachusetts is a national leader in energy efficiency programs, yet there is still no dedicated funding source to help people who heat with oil to weatherize buildings and invest in efficient new oilheat systems. People who heat with natural gas have long had access to our state’s award-winning efficiency programs, but across much of the state, there is no access to natural gas infrastructure. For those who live or work in municipal electric territories, the issue is especially important.

 

More than a third of Bay State residents rely on oil to heat their homes. At current costs of about $4/gallon, we can little afford to waste this resource – not to mention the environmental costs. Making homes, public buildings and businesses that rely on oilheat more efficient and upgrading old oilheat systems can help slash oil bills and emissions by about 30 percent, permanently. It’s time to extend the same opportunities to those who heat with oil.

 

“An Act further promoting energy efficiency and green jobs,” (H2741) has been introduced in the Mass. House by Rep Smizik and 20 co-sponsors. A broad coalition – including oil dealers, plumbing and heating contractors, low-income advocates, energy and environmental groups is working for passage of this bill to create an oilheat efficiency fund. This is a major missing piece in the state’s ambitious energy/climate agenda, and would significantly save consumers money, add thousands of jobs, reduce emissions, etc. Among its benefits, this bill would:

  • Reduce greenhouse gases — Potential to greatly expand oil savings, allowing the Bay State to remain on track to meet our aggressive carbon reduction goals and reduce other pollutants.
  • Save consumers money — Every $1 dollar invested in energy efficiency pays the customer back over $7.60 in direct oilheat savings.
  • Boost our local economy — Keeping more of our energy dollars circulating in-state rather than sending them outside our region.
  • Add thousands of jobs —167 job years will be created per million dollars of program investments, both within and independent of the energy efficiency sector.

 

Will you join us in supporting this bill? In the coming weeks and months our coalition will be asking people to talk to their state legislators. Visit oilheatsaveenergycoalition.org for more information and to sign up for an action alert. Thank you!

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Palms, Matzah, Our Planet, and the White House: A Religious Call to Civil Disobedience
at 12:00 Noon, Thursday, March 21st in Washington, D.C.

Dear Friends,

At noon on March 21st, religiously and spiritually rooted Americans of all traditions will gather at the White House for a moral act of loving nonviolent civil disobedience.  This action, organized by the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate (IMAC), will make clear to President Obama that his inspired pledge to halt the destruction of the Earth from climate change requires that he take bold and courageous actions, including rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

As religious leaders and individuals who recognize the moral imperative of taking unified, visible action to ensure that our nations leaders act responsibly to address climate change, we invite you to join us at the White House on March 21st, either to engage in civil disobedience, or to stand with others in a circle of support for those who do choose to risk arrest.

Our March 21st action will occur at a critical moment:  Many of our religious communities will be preparing for Passover and Holy Week, (Palm Sunday begins Holy Week on March 24; the first night of Passover is on Monday, March 25), even as our President faces a profound decision that will affect our planet  teetering on the edge of a climate tipping point  and the human communities throughout the Earth already suffering the effects of the climate crisis and threatened with more and worsening disasters.

As we observe the upcoming holy days, our ancient sacred wisdoms remind us that top-down power must be called to account for us to win through to the Promised Land, the Beloved Community.

Super-storm Sandy, the drastic droughts in our corn country, record-breaking Arctic ice melt, disasters in Australia, Russia, Pakistan and Africa, and the realization that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the continental United States all warn us: the disruption of our planet will not wait for our normal political
paralysis to end.

We are inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was among the leaders of a profoundly religious and spiritual movement to heal us from the great dangers of war and injustice in his day:

We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now…. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words:  Too late.

And we take note that even a leading secular journalist, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, has called for civil disobedience to insist on strong measures to heal the climate crisis.

If we go over the Climate Cliff now, experiencing Plagues in our own generation as the Bible describes the Ten Plagues all eco-disasters — long ago, our grandchildren will live in misery and suffering.

Today’s Plagues endanger the web of life upon our planet, including the human race and inflict the greatest harm on the poorest and most vulnerable among us.  We are especially concerned by the effects on local communities and our planetary future of destructive, extreme energy extraction: mountaintop removal, fracking, Arctic and deep sea offshore oil drilling, and tar sands mining.

Out of our moral commitment to protect and heal Gods Creation, our religious communities need to be calling for a set of first-step changes that will sow the seeds of greater change, by committing the
President and Congress to vigorous action.

As we prepare for civil disobedience at the White House, we address not only our government, but also religious communities throughout the country: In the name of Creator Spirit, Holy One of Being — JOIN US!

On Thursday, March 21st at 12:00 Noon, we will gather in Lafayette Park (directly across from the White House on Pennsylvania Ave., NW) carrying three sacred symbols:

  1. The Palms that greeted Jesus entry into Jerusalem, — green fronds of life to challenge the deadliness of the Roman Empire;
  2. The Matzoh, unleavened bread that began as the food of the poor and afflicted but became the bread of life and freedom when the People of Israel hurried forth in the fierce urgency of Now.
  3. The Globe of the planet we share, Gods Creation — for all our traditions, a symbol of sharing and wholeness of the Earth for which we sing:

We’ve got the whole world in our hands,
We’ve got rivers and mountains in our hands,
We’ve got frogs and polar bears in our hands,
We’ve got our children and their children in our hands–
We’ve got the whole world in our hands!

What will we be urging that the President do to meet the needs of this critical hour in planetary time?  He must take actions necessary to heal our communities and the Earth, such as these:

  1. Permanently refuse permits for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, because tar-oil is among the most dangerous of the planet-heating forms of carbon.
  2. Call now a National Summit Conference on the Climate Crisis to meet with the urgency that the crisis demands — including leaders of business, labor, academia, religious communities, governmental officialdom, science, and other relevant bodies.
  3. Publicly support and advocate for a carbon fee that will generate hundreds of billions of dollars, with provisions to ensure that working families and the poor are not harmed by higher carbon prices; for an end to subsidies to the coal, oil and gas industries; and for substantial subsidies for research, development, and use of renewable, sustainable and jobs-creating clean energy sources.

In the Name of the God whose Names are many, we invite and urge you to
join us on March 21st at the White House.  To endorse this action or
indicate your intention to take part, please contact Cindy Harris at
cynthiaharris4930@gmail.com.

With blessings of shalom, salaam, pax, paz, peace,

IMAC Supporters* and Steering Committee Members

*Asoka Bandarage, author, Sustainability and Well-Being: The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy (Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming).
Rev. Tom Carr, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Hartford, CT, co-founder of Interreligious Eco Justice Network, CT,
Rev. Terry Ellen, Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice in the National Capital Region
Ted Glick, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Cynthia Harris, IMAC Steering Committee
Dr. Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation
*Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Director, Social Justice Organizing Program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Fr. Paul Mayer, Climate Crisis Coalition
Jacqueline Patterson, Director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP
Ibrahim Ramey, Muslim American Freedom Society
*Catherine Skopic, Chair, Environmental Task Force of the Congregation of Saint Saviour within the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine; Chair Environmental Committee, Episcopal Diocese of New York.
Karen Scott, Center for Liberty of Conscience
Lise Van Susteren, MD, Advisory Board Member, Center for Health and the Global Environment; National Wildlife Federation
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center, Philadelphia
*Dr. Donald Wheeler, New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability / Emmanuel Baptist Church

* * * * *

http://interfaithactiononclimatechange.org.

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Just Label It Launches Statewide Initiative Map

[W]e have updated the JLI website to include a map highlighting state labeling initiatives around the country, and to include new education resources.

You can also watch and share Gary’s recent talk at TEDxManhattan.

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Take our action to tell Coke and Pepsi that you believe in labeling, and you don’t want to drink their GMOs.

Dear Green American,

We all know the many problems with Coke and Pepsi’s soda products. They’re pumped full of unhealthy GMO sweeteners, the companies have a history of disregarding local water rights near bottling plants, their packaging is wasteful …  the list goes on and on.

But did you know that list now includes their active work to keep you in the dark about GMO ingredients in our food supply?  Last year, Coke and Pepsi together contributed more than $4.1 million to oppose GMO labeling in California.

Tell Coke & Pepsi you have a right to know »

These two beverage giants sell many other product lines, many of which are also likely to be pumped full of GMOs (look for high-fructose corn syrup on the label).  If you purchase brands like Naked Juice, Odwalla, Minute Maid, Tropicana, Ocean Spray, SoBe, Gatorade, Lipton, or Fuze, you’re a Coke or Pepsi customer — which means the company should hear from you today that you don’t appreciate their stance on GMOs.

Take our action to tell Coke and Pepsi that you believe in labeling, and you don’t want to drink their GMOs.

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The Massachusetts Ground Water Association and the Water Systems Council are pleased to announce that the 2013 Bay State Children’s Water Festival will be held in Holyoke, Massachusetts at Holyoke Community College! The festival will take place on June 6, 2013 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

To get an idea of the scope of the festival, you can view a video of a previous festival at www.watersystemscouncil.org. Click on the link on the upper right hand corner of the homepage.

 

Approximately 1,500 students from the school districts surrounding Holyoke have been invited to attend. These students will explore drinking water, groundwater, watersheds, surface water, well systems, and water quality and conservation through dynamic and interactive activities.

These engaging presentations give the students a better understanding of their water supply and what a truly precious resource it is. The activities will be lead by water and natural resource experts from local, state and national organizations.

These volunteers work as presenters of activities, class guides, dining hall volunteers, registration assistants, and logistical coordinators.

 

This is where your help is greatly needed! It takes over 300 volunteers to make this festival a success, so please take the time to sign up to be a festival volunteer. The volunteer registration form can be downloaded from www.watersystemscouncil.org.

 

Participants and volunteers alike have high praise for the festival. As one volunteer put it after the 2011 PA Children’s Water Festival, “My wife and family have been in education for over 35 years and we feel the water festival ranks up with the best educational field trips we have had the privilege to participate in.”

The 2013 Bay State Children’s Water Festival will also welcome Grammy award winning singer, songwriter Tom Chapin to the stage. He will entertain all the students with his collection of environmental songs such as “The Wheel of Water” and the kids favorite “Good Garbage”.

 

Of course there are many expenses involved in putting on the festival. Historically one of the greatest expenses is the funds given to schools to cover their transportation costs. Today many school districts are financially strapped and have cut field trips as a way to trim their budgets. It is very exciting that, with the financial support of festival sponsors, this educational experience is offered to so many Massachusetts students and their teachers at no cost.

 

Please contact Margaret Martens, Public Education Coordinator for the Water Systems Council, at 202-625-4387 or mmartens@watersystemscouncil.org to get involved!


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National Bioblitz Recruiting Field Biologists

The National Geographic Society (NGS) and the National Park Service (NPS) are organizing a BioBlitz at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve on May 17-18, 2013. We are currently recruiting field biologists, naturalists and taxonomic experts to participate in this wonderful, free, public event that will take place just outside of New Orleans. We hope to finalize the 2013 team this month and would love your help in getting the word out to your faculty and associates.

A BioBlitz is a unique combination of taxonomic inventory, public outreach, and science education. At its core, Bioblitz is a species inventory in which teams of volunteers, each led by an expert scientist, find, identify, and map as many species as possible within a 24-hour period. While the inventory is not exhaustive, it can nevertheless yield valuable biogeographic information; it raises awareness about biodiversity with the general pubic and school children; and hopefully inspires the next generation of field biologists. The 2013 BioBlitz is the seventh in a ten-year NPS-NGS series in anticipation for the National Park Services’ Centennial in 2016.

On-line scientist registration is now open and we hope to enlist more than 150 scientists/naturalists to lead approximately 2,000-4,000 students and citizen scientists throughout the Barataria Preserve, a beautiful 23,500 acres of coastal wetlands landscape.

A companion Biodiversity Festival will also be held May 17-18 at the Barataria Preserve. In addition to music, entertainment, and scientist talks, the festival will feature more than 45 exhibitors. If your organization might be interested in hosting a booth to promote your efforts/initiatives, please let me know and I will send the online application. There is no cost for the booth, we just require that it adds to the fun, engaging, educational experience. We hope to finalize exhibitors this month as well.


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Conservation District Hosts Poetry Contest for Arbor Day

Berkshire Conservation District is hosting a poetry contest for students in Berkshire County in grades 4 through 12 in honor of National Arbor Day. Entries are due on Arbor Day, April 26th. The poem theme is “In Praise of Trees” and should be at least 12 lines long but no longer than 1 page typed or hand written. Students are encouraged to write from their own experience in nature keeping in mind the established theme. Entries will be divided between grades 4-8 and grades 9-12. Winners will be awarded with live tree seedlings and three Pocket Nature Guides of their choosing. Winners will be notified by April 30th and awards will be available for pick up at the Seedling Fundraiser Sale Day Event, May 4th from 9am to 12pm at Springside Park, Pittsfield, or Monument Mountain Regional high school in Great Barrington. The purpose of the contest is to engage youth in creative writing in appreciation of trees and nature in celebration of National Arbor Day as well as to promote the planting and care of trees in their community. Call (413) 443-1776 ext. 102 or visit www.berkshireconservation.org to obtain contest rules and an entry form.


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Grants for Farmers

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) has three business planning programs with annual grants available, dependent upon funding each year, to help agricultural operations make farm improvements that enhance their economic viability and help prevent environmental resource impacts:

  • Farm Viability Enhancement Program (FVEP)- for farms in active agriculture use for at least 3 years with at least 5 acres in production
  • APR Improvement Program (AIP)- for farms protected through Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) Program in active agriculture use for at least 3 years
  • Matching Enterprise Grants for Agriculture (MEGA) – for new and beginning farms

Additional eligibility requirements and detailed program information are expected to be available by the end of March 2013, with applications due by June 2013. For more information, contact Melissa Adams at melissaadamsAIP@gmail.com or (413) 268-8269.


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Corporate Sustainability Program Manager, Earthwatch Institute

This position is an exciting opportunity to bring together science and business at a leading international environmental NGO. This role will have responsibility for management and delivery of a range of programs funded by corporate and other partners. The Program Manager will work with Program team colleagues across different regions to develop and implement best practice processes and partner communication, and will ensure that opportunities to strengthen and develop these programs are seized.

This position was just authorized so it hasn’t even made it to our website yet, hence the link to idealist!

Job (Boston): Program Manager, Corporate

 

Program Coordinator, Earthwatch Institute

This position is a great entry level position with a leading international environmental NGO based in Boston. The person hired must have an interest in working globally internally and externally and have fluency in French. We are looking to fill the position as soon as possible.

Job (Boston): Program Coordinator, Corporate
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