Thank you to Rachel Branch, producer of the television show Solutions Rising for including a “BEAT” series for people to learn more about the fracked gas pipelines proposed to bring gas from the fracking fields of Pennsylvania across New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to a gas hub in Dracut, MA. The show interviews many people providing information about the proposed pipelines as well as the many alternatives to these pipelines.
Denny Alsop is about to give a gift to the Housatonic River, and rivers everywhere, without using money or anything else except the spirit of odyssey and love, using a white canoe as a petition, and a 69-year-old body. It will be the second time for Alsop, who will travel the Housatonic and other waterways from the Connecticut border to Boston, one at a time. That was in 1988, and he did it as a winding and moving meditation on his love of clean water, and to say something, not with words but with action. Alsop calls it a “journey of conscience” for an embattled river, and for water everywhere.
GE issues final rejection of EPA’s Housatonic River cleanup plan
General Electric is hanging tough on its dismissal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s $613 million, 13-year cleanup plan to cleanse the Housatonic River of most toxic PCBs between southeast Pittsfield and Woods Pond in Lenox. Its final rejection of the proposal posted on Wednesday ensures that the gulf separating the two sides is headed into the legal arena, beginning with what the federal government describes as “formal dispute resolution.” As reported by Clarence Fanto in The Berkshire Eagle, March 16, 2016.
Housatonic Water Works violates DEP monitoring rules; seeks 34 percent rate increase
As the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) entertains a 34 percent rate increase for Housatonic Water Works’ (HWW) 1,400 customers, the state Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is ordering HWW to fix violations to water quality monitoring and reporting by June 1. A draft of MassDEP’s February 17 order says HWW customers were to be notified of these violations, along with the order and possible penalties of $25,000 for each violation, by March 15. But HWW Treasurer Jim Mercer told the Edge that date was moved and details of the final draft of the order are still being hammered out between HWW and the agency. As reported by Heather Bellow in The Berkshire Edge, March 15, 2016.
Two-thirds of Mass. House members back pro-solar industry bill
In November, nearly everyone in the state House of Representatives voted for a solar bill that the solar industry vigorously opposed. But now, with the issue bottled up in a conference committee, roughly two-thirds of the House’s members have reversed course and are rallying to the industry’s cause. A group of 100 lawmakers have signed a letter to the committee urging members to endorse legislation that includes a level of incentives the solar industry could support. By Jon Chesto of The Boston Globe, March 15, 2016.
Democracy Awakening, Washington, D.C. Sunday, April 17th
A bus is going from Amherst to the Democracy Awakening event in Washington, DC for the day of Sunday, April 17, only. Cost is $64. See Cynthia Pease’s Facebook page for a post about getting a ticket to ride. http://www.moraluniversecynthia.wordpress.com/
Jobs
GIS Developer / Analyst – Housatonic Valley Association
Landscape Design, Installation, Maintenance, and Nursery Positions available – Helia Native Nursery and Land Design
Office Manager – Mass Audubon Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries
Seasonal Forestry Assistant – MA Dept. of Conservation and Rereation (Pittsfield)
Executive Director – Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC)
Commissioner & Associate(s) – Egremont Conservation Commission
Office Manager, Part-time – BNRC
2016 Berkshire Land Conservation Summer Internships – BNRC
2016 Berkshire Trail Crew – BNRC
For love of the Housatonic River, a cross-state trek on behalf of clean water — again
By Heather Bellow
The Berkshire Edge
Tuesday, Mar 15
Denny Alsop is about to give a gift to the Housatonic River, and rivers everywhere, without using money or anything else except the spirit of odyssey and love, using a white canoe as a petition, and a 69-year-old body.
It will be the second time for Alsop, who will travel the Housatonic and other waterways from the Connecticut border to Boston, one at a time. That was in 1988, and he did it as a winding and moving meditation on his love of clean water, and to say something, not with words but with action.
Alsop calls it a “journey of conscience” for an embattled river, and for water everywhere.
Nearly thirty years have passed, and Alsop will again launch a canoe from a Trustees of Reservations property at Bartholomew’s Cobble on March 21, prompted by the most recent struggles, he said, over the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed “Rest of River” cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the Housatonic, discharged there by the General Electric Company (GE), and the agency’s struggle to get GE to remediate the toxic pollution.
“This is not about me,” Alsop said. “It’s all coming to a point where I feel like I can do my little thing — a symbolic push — bringing attention to what all the warriors along this river have done and what they are doing. I’m the messenger not the hero.”
It is a political message, carried to the Statehouse quietly and with a peaceful heart.
“What I discovered is it’s not what happens when you get there,” Alsop said. “When you start you declare where you’re taking the message, and along the way it’s the idea that you would dare to carry a message for people to Boston or New York or D.C. Along the way is where the magic happens.”
A lifelong Stockbridge resident, outdoorsman and retired logger, Alsop said he will need to get another canoe — the one he used in 1988 is too beat up. And while it is a “solo journey,” his family helps him launch a canoe that people along the way can use waterproof markers to sign messages. His daughter has promised to bring two granddaughters to the beginning of this trip, and he’s hoping a grandson will come too. His grandson, he said, is the same age his son was when he helped his father push the canoe into the river in 1988.
“A generation has passed, and it’s time for action,” he said.
Photographer and Housatonic River Initiative (HRI) board member Benno Friedman says Denny’s voyage is not just about Housatonic river. “PCBs are ubiquitous in the world,” he said. “We all carry body burdens of PCBs.”
Friedman, who with others birthed HRI at his Sheffield kitchen table in the mid-90s, says while Alsop is representing HRI he is making the trip to shine a light on the idea of clean water everywhere.
Friedman likens the EPA’s proposed Rest of River cleanup to an operation on an accident victim. “It is possible to bring things back to a relatively pristine condition despite the difficulty and momentary pain.
Indeed, it will not be pretty. GE will have to dredge contaminated, toxic sediment and dispose of it. The possible economic effects and disruption worries some residents and business owners.
“Body parts opened up, the blood and guts,” Friedman said, before the patient is “sewed up, and a time of healing.” He said it is critical to take the long-view, and to know different sections of river can be enjoyed while others are being remediated.
Friedman is in it for love too, something both he and Alsop developed during their 1950s childhoods near the Housatonic, so polluted they couldn’t go in. Alsop used to cross the river on the walk to school in Stockbridge. “In those days you could look off the bridge and see what color the dye lots were in the paper mills in Lee,” he said. “So much of that has been improved with the Clean Water Act. Now we’re dealing with something else.”
At his parents’ second home in Sheffield, a six-year-old Friedman asked to swim in the river. “No, it’s dirty,” his parents told him.
Alsop says his voyage across the state, in which he will have to portage here and there, isn’t a “protest journey.” Even on his 1988 trip, when a Boston watershed bill was under attack in the senate, he “made a very strange decision not to mention PCBs once, and the reason I did that was because I felt the river was thought of as being an appliance, an industrial appendage, a depressing place, and what I wanted to do was communicate how beautiful it was and how exciting it is to travel on a river that size in our own communities. Why go to the Arctic when you can canoe up the Housatonic?”
He also thinks we should “celebrate our successes on this river,” particularly the “EPA/GE mitigation of the first mile and a half below the [GE] plant.” He’s had a look at it. “I can’t tell the difference from before. They’ve done a really good job, which means if we all pulled together we can do powerful things for the river.”
Housatonic River Walk’s Rachel Fletcher told The Edge that when Alsop got to Boston in 1988, “he reported to state officials and anyone who would listen that the only clean water he encountered along the way was the water in his 5 gallon jug.”
Fletcher said Alsop inspired her work to restore and care-take the Great Barrington sections of the river, and create a place where people can enjoy it.
“At the time I didn’t even realize there was a Housatonic River. But Denny’s odyssey captured my imagination like lightening and I found myself following each step of his journey on a map. Without understanding why, I was totally obsessed.” She was working at Community Land Trust, which was next to the present Rite Aid on Main Street, she said, when she looked out the back window. “I discovered a riverbank choked with trash and the remains of Melvin’s [Pharmacy] fire. How can we be a land trust and not address this mess in our own backyard, I wondered. That was the beginning of River Walk.
We began with a small section of riverbank cleanup in honor of Denny.”
The hard work of paddling this time of year, especially upstream, is symbolic, Friedman said. “It defines the journey that HRI and the other groups are facing to go against the current of inertia and indifference.”
Many Berkshire County residents are joining an effort to stop GE from dumping the contaminated sludge in landfills in Lenox Dale, Lee and Housatonic, rather than shipping it out of state to certified landfills as the EPA has proposed. The company says it will cost $250 million more to take it away. Friedman says the “squeaky wheel” grassroots method is the one that will work here.
With GE’s “largesse” strewn about to the larger, more polished, influential organizations and businesses, Friedman says, it’s just regular people, “grassroots and unpaid volunteers,” who are the “engines of change in our world.”
“Grassroots has nothing except bodies,” he said. “Bodies are the cleanest, most direct representation of what it is that the people want. And if the bodies show up and say this is what we want, that’s probably the only time politicians might reverse their course.” But, he added, “people have to get off the couch.”
While Denny is just one, Friedman says he might be “pivotal…by doing something difficult and uncomfortable.”
While Alsop’s journey may help the growing Berkshires movement to make GE clean up its mess, he’s not coming at it from outrage.
“It is inspired by my own recognition many years ago that I was happy when I was around clean water, and I looked around me and realized that clean water was slipping away from us…I’m not a poet, I’m not a writer, but I do know how to paddle a canoe, and this time, I know how to reach Boston.”
It’s also springtime, season of “rain and hope,” and people are “getting out into their gardens,” he said. “We’re suggesting the connection to rivers that so many people feel. This comes from love.”
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GE issues final rejection of EPA’s Housatonic River cleanup plan
By Clarence Fanto
The Berkshire Eagle
03/16/2016
General Electric is hanging tough on its dismissal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s $613 million, 13-year cleanup plan to cleanse the Housatonic River of most toxic PCBs between southeast Pittsfield and Woods Pond in Lenox.
Its final rejection of the proposal posted on Wednesday ensures that the gulf separating the two sides is headed into the legal arena, beginning with what the federal government describes as “formal dispute resolution.”
In a strongly worded letter, GE’s Vice President for Global Operations Ann Klee intensified the company’s opposition to the agency’s “intended final decision” to dredge, excavate and remove soil and sediment from the river and its banks containing the likely cancer-causing chemicals.
“GE’s position is clear and unchanged,” Klee stated in her letter to the EPA’s Boston-based regional counsel Carl Dierker. “We will implement, at considerable cost, a common sense solution to the PCBs remaining in the Housatonic Rest of River” in line with legal requirements imposed by the overall river cleanup Consent Decree filed in late 2000 at U.S. District Court, Springfield.
“Despite EPA’s lengthy efforts to salvage its intended Rest of River Remedial Action, that intended decision would violate EPA’s Consent Decree obligations, exceed EPA’s statutory authority, and be arbitrary, capricious, and otherwise unlawful,” company attorneys asserted in a 40-page legal document accompanying the letter.
The next step is a final cleanup order to be issued by the EPA’s Dierker, though no deadline is set. “We look forward to your decision in this dispute,” Klee wrote.
If GE rejects the decision, the case goes to the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board in Washington, D.C., and potentially to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
The company sharply disputed the EPA’s position, supported by the state Department of Environmental Protection, that contaminated soil and sediment must be shipped to a licensed out-of-state facility rather than to one of three potential dump sites on the Lee-Lenox Dale border, off Forest Street in Lee and at Rising Pond in the Great Barrington village of Housatonic.
Citing the Consent Decree, Klee insisted that the EPA’s own Rest of River cleanup standards “dictate on-site disposal” of the sediment and soil. She pointed to an Eagle article last December quoting the agency as stating that on-site disposal is “just as safe” as shipping the material out-of-state.
But the EPA cites state regulations forbidding the dumping of PCBs in Massachusetts as well as overwhelming community opposition to creating another landfill such as Pittsfield’s Hill 78 near the Allendale School as a capped storage site for the toxins.
GE has acknowledged that on-site disposal would save the company about $250 million. Klee’s letter claims that the additional cost offers “no benefit other than placating local opponents, which is not a remedy selection criterion.”
“EPA’s attempt to now distance itself from the remedy selection criteria, and its selection of on-site disposal, “is the height of arbitrariness,” she wrote.
The 40-page legal document accompanying her letter states that “the challenge for EPA is that ‘community and state opposition’ is not a legitimate factor” and that the Consent Decree exempts an on-site disposal landfill “from the need for any state or local permits or approvals.”
Another sore point with GE is the federal agency’s requirement for an extensive cleanup of Woods Pond in Lenox, a top “hot spot” of contamination.
The company finds the EPA plan to remove nearly 90 percent of the pollutants from the pond, which collects PCBs flowing downstream from Pittsfield, as inconsistent with the Consent Decree.
“EPA’s own model establishes that much less removal in Woods Pond is equally protective,” Klee wrote. The GE counterproposal would eliminate only 13 percent of the PCBs in Woods Pond and save the company about $130 million.
GE accused the federal government of being motivated “by an interest in garnering community support for its intended final decision.”
The company also disputed EPA’s contention that GE “seeks only to ‘reduce its costs’ as totally inconsistent with the history of GE’s engagement” with the federal agency and the two states.
“GE has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the remediation of the river, GE’s former Pittsfield facility and surrounding areas,” the letter asserted.
The company discharged the pollutants into the Housatonic from its Pittsfield electrical transformer plant from 1932 to 1977, when the U.S. government acted to ban use of PCBs.
Klee restated the global company’s commitment “to a substantial Rest of River remedial action that would protect human health and the environment while minimizing impacts on the unique Housatonic ecosystem.”
She contended that GE tried to avoid the confrontation with the EPA by agreeing to “a more expansive cleanup” than required by the original legal agreement on the overall river remedy. The Consent Decree set the stage for GE’s cleanup for the first two miles downstream from its plant in Pittsfield.
The company asserted that it worked extensively with the EPA and the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut to agree on a Rest of River remedy.
But Klee’s letter depicted the effort as unsuccessful because the federal government’s solution “cannot be reconciled” with the EPA’s commitments in the Consent Decree and related law.
She listed “indefensible elements” of the EPA plan, accusing the agency of recognizing “the unique ecology of the upstream portion” of the river designated by the state as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern “only when the EPA believes it serves its purpose.”
GE argues that the agency “ignores that unique ecology” by insisting on a remedy “far larger “than alternatives favored by the state.” According to Klee, state agencies depict the EPA plan as causing “inevitable damage” that will “far exceed the theoretical benefit of lower PCB concentrations.”
The company also firmly denied the government’s position that GE has ever sought “virtual total certainty and finality in the cleanup, with uncertainties and costs to be borne by the public.”
“GE seeks only that EPA honor its commitments in the Consent Decree and now identify the response actions it believes are necessary in the Rest of River,” Klee’s letter declared. She called on the government to perform “robust analysis required by the Consent Decree and not punt those decisions into the future.”
On the Web …
The GE rejection document and other filings on the EPA’s Rest of River cleanup plan can be accessed at https://semspub.epa.gov/src/collection/01/SC32124
Housatonic Water Works violates DEP monitoring rules; seeks 34 percent rate increase
By Heather Bellow
The Berkshire Edge
March 15, 2016
Housatonic — As the state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) entertains a 34 percent rate increase for Housatonic Water Works’ (HWW) 1,400 customers, the state Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is ordering HWW to fix violations to water quality monitoring and reporting by June 1.
A draft of MassDEP’s February 17 order says HWW customers were to be notified of these violations, along with the order and possible penalties of $25,000 for each violation, by March 15. But HWW Treasurer Jim Mercer told the Edge that date was moved and details of the final draft of the order are still being hammered out between HWW and the agency. A conference was held between the two yesterday (March 14), Mercer added.
Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin said it was important to note that the water is safe to drink. A call was made to MassDEP on this account as soon as the town received the order. “MassDEP does not consider this to be anything of a public heath concern,” she said, noting that the agency “takes immediate action for public health concerns.”
The order was issued to fix some problems from July 2014 forward that include numerous violations to the “Surface Treatment Rule Monitoring and Reporting.” The violations are around some data lapses in continuous testing that the state requires to make sure water is properly disinfected. MassDEP also issued a violation to HWW for failing to notify the public of these testing violations.
The draft order says HWW decided to enter into this agreement because it was “in their own interests, and in the public interest” to take the matter in hand rather than litigate it. And MassDEP will “suspend” penalty payments unless the order is violated.
How this will affect the rate increase request is an unknown. Calls to the Department of Public Utilities to clarify whether the DEP violations would affect the requested rate increase were not returned.
But it’s on people’s minds. Tabakin had a conference call with DPU and “we raised questions about the two concerns. They didn’t really give us any guidance.” And Mercer said HWW knew about MassDEP’s order before they requested the rate hike. DPU told Tabakin they will follow up with her, but for now the agency is still researching whether the company should get its rate hike. “They heard us and heard our concerns about the rate increases and concerns about HWW’s capital plan, and making sure they can operate at the level they need to,” she explained.
Indeed, the company, which draws water from Long Pond, says it needs the increase to deal with some of the more immediate issues like higher operating expenses and state-mandated upgrades to an antiquated system. It created a master plan that will phase much of the work out over 20 years. The company’s last increase was in 2008. This increase would cause a metered customer’s fixed charge to jump from $34.32 to $41.18. HWW wants to also add volume charge $4.42 for every 1,000 gallons used per month, and $8.84 for every thousand gallons over 2,500. HWW says a “typical residential customer” using 5,500 gallons per month would see an increase of $20.10 (34.27 percent). The increase would result in an income to HWW of $187,099, and would vary depending on the season.
But in Housatonic, many residents, particularly the elderly, are struggling to pay their bills, and came out to the DPU’s public hearing in January to protest the increase. Mercer acknowledged this to The Edge in January, and said his company would work with residents to create payment plans.
Two-thirds of Mass. House members back pro-solar industry bill
By Jon Chesto, Globe Staff
The Boston Globe
March 15, 2016
In November, nearly everyone in the state House of Representatives voted for a solar bill that the solar industry vigorously opposed.
But now, with the issue bottled up in a conference committee, roughly two-thirds of the House’s members have reversed course and are rallying to the industry’s cause. A group of 100 lawmakers have signed a letter to the committee urging members to endorse legislation that includes a level of incentives the solar industry could support.
Negotiators so far have been unable to come to an agreement on how to raise the limits for net metering, the system for crediting solar panel owners for excess electricity sent into the grid. The caps have already been hit in National Grid’s service area, causing many large solar projects to be shelved. Household-sized rooftop solar panels are exempt from the caps.
One big issue: what happens to the net metering reimbursement rate after the state’s solar generating capacity reaches 1,600 megawatts. (The state’s existing capacity is more than 1,000 megawatts, but there are enough projects in the pipeline to get close to 1,600.)
The Senate proposed what was seen as the most favorable bill for the solar industry, in terms of how much the reimbursement levels would be reduced, while the House bill was considered the one most onerous to solar. Governor Charlie Baker pushed a third bill, one that was seen as middle ground between the other two.
The House bill would have reduced the net metering rate from the current retail price for electricity to the much lower wholesale price, again making an exception for residential rooftops.
But the 100 representatives have now coalesced around a more pro-solar approach than the bill that nearly all of them voted for in November.
They say that the state’s net metering policy should, at a minimum, maintain the retail rate for community-shared solar projects, as well as those that serve low-income residents. Rates for all municipal projects would remain at the higher level. They also want lawmakers to ensure existing systems are “grandfathered,” so those previously-built projects continue to receive the same reimbursement rates.
The letter follows one on Monday, sent by at least 30 mayors and city managers, asking the conference committee to protect reimbursement rates for municipal projects.
The state lawmakers, in their letter, said they’re concerned that sharp cuts to net metering rates could cause irreparable harm to the solar industry and its roughly 15,000 jobs in the state.
Representative Cory Atkins, one of the legislators behind the petition, said in a statement that the letter was inspired by a stream of calls from constituents since the House passed its bill in November.
The state’s two big utilities, Eversource and National Grid, and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts argue that the existing system is too generous for solar panel owners at the expense of other ratepayers who don’t use solar panels. AIM sent a letter to the solar conference committee last week, asking the committee members to wait to take action on net metering until the Baker administration’s Department of Energy Resources completes an analysis of solar incentive values.
AIM also criticized the latest letter, from the 100 representatives.
“The employers of Massachusetts remain disappointed that these legislators oppose common-sense reforms to the solar program and are willing to impose billions of dollars in taxes on companies and individuals who do not use solar,” AIM executive vice president Chris Geehern said in a statement.
But George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, said that it’s important to also weigh the other benefits of solar with the costs, including the reduced need for fossil-fuel burning plants.
Bachrach said he was surprised so many lawmakers signed the letter, indicating a major shift from the House’s stance in November.
“They understood this is a somewhat more complicated issue than they first saw it as,” Bachrach said.
Jobs
GIS Developer / Analyst – Housatonic Valley Association
Summary: The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) seeks a skilled and motivated Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professional with strong geospatial analytical and developer skills and demonstrated expertise with ESRI’s ArcGIS desktop, mobile and server technology for the full-time position of GIS Developer / Analyst. For 75 years, HVA has been dedicated to the health and vitality of the Housatonic River, a nationally recognized, 1,245,000 acre watershed located in western Connecticut and Massachusetts and portions of eastern New York. GIS is an HVA core competency. It is essential to the work we and our partners undertake to set conservation priorities, conserve the natural character and environmental health of our communities, and protect and restore the lands and waters of the Housatonic Watershed for this and future generations.
Position Description: Working out of our Cornwall Bridge, CT main office, the incumbent works closely with HVA colleagues and acts as the GIS Manager for the organization. This is a full-time position with a competitive salary commensurate with experience. The incumbent is responsible for maintaining and enhancing HVA’s natural resource and parcel-based GIS data, developing geospatial models to perform spatial and tabular analysis, and publishing cartographic products as static paper maps and dynamic web-based applications.
Required Qualifications:
- Proven capabilities with ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server
- Experience building interactive web-based applications using Arcgis Online and/or ArcGIS FlexViewer
- Familiarity with ArcGIS Story Maps
- Enthusiasm to remain current in GIS technologies
- Passion for Environmental Protection and Land Conservation
- Willingness to assist with non-GIS related activities
- Effective communicator in written and spoken language
- Valid Driver’s License
Desired Qualifications:
- Familiarity with GIS data sources for CT, MA and NY
- Familiarity with Amazon Web Services and managing ArcGIS Server on Amazon EC2
- Experience with GPS and mobile GIS data collection
- Experience using Data Driven Pages, ModelBuilder
- Experience managing ArcGIS Online Organization Account
To apply:
Email cover letter, resume, examples of recent work using ArcGIS Desktop and ArcServer, and links to Facebook and Linkedin pages to: Tim Abbott tim.abbott@hvatoday.org. The position will remain open until it is filled.
Landscape Design, Installation, Maintenance, and Nursery Positions Available – Helia Native Nursery & Land Design
We specialize in Native Plants, Ecological Landscape Design, Wildflower Meadows, Site Restoration, Edible and Fine Gardens.
We are expanding and currently have full time openings in the following positions:
Landscape Design – The right candidate will have a strong background, full knowledge and experience in site surveying, base mapping and design, autoCAD and SketchUP, with a good knowledge of plants, especially natives. You must be energetic, hardworking, physically fit and a positive team-oriented person.
Installation Manager – We are looking for a full time, energetic, hardworking, physically fit, positive, and team-oriented person to join our landscape installation team and manage installation jobs. Experience with native plants, garden installation, small machinery, stone work and maintenance is preferred.
Garden Maintenance – Come join our full time fine garden maintenance team. We are looking for energetic, hardworking, physically fit, positive, and team-oriented people to join our team.
Please call 413-274-1400 to apply or email your resume to helialanddesign@gmail.com.
Office Manager – Mass Audubon Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries
Mass Audubon is seeking an Office Manager to join our Berkshire Sanctuaries team. The position is based at Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox, MA.
Responsibilities
- Perform a variety of office management and administrative duties;
- Manage all financial data including invoice payment, receivables, budget reconciliations, gifts and cash receipts;
- Develop marketing and publicity materials including social media, print pieces, e-newsletter, posters and press releases;
- Oversee online program registrations;
- Greet visitors, answer phones and provide trail information to visitors;
- Work with Mass Audubon headquarters staff to implement statewide initiatives for membership and information security;
- Manage and market facility rental program;
- Manage occasional fundraising or other events;
- Supervise maintenance of office equipment including printers, copiers, and phone system;
- Supervise visitor services staff;
- Manage Canoe Meadows Community Gardens registration;
- Manage Pleasant Valley Day Camp registration;
- Occasional weekend hours for special events;
- Attendance at 2-3 statewide Mass Audubon A-team meetings per year, required;
- Other duties as required.
Qualifications
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
- Excellent interpersonal and customer relations skills;
- Exceptional attention to detail and a highly organized approach;
- Ability to work both collaboratively and independently;
- Ability to manage a wide variety of tasks
- High proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher);
- Basic skills in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop and InDesign) desirable;
- Experience managing social media and electronic newsletters;
- BA or equivalent experience;
- A sense of humor is welcome;
- Valid drivers license
- Must pass a background record check (CORI, SORI and driver’s).
How to Apply
Please email your resume and cover letter with the subject “Office Manager Position” to:
Seasonal Forestry Assistant – MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (Pittsfield)
About the Department of Conservation and Recreation: The Department of Conservation and Recreation manages one of the largest and most diverse state parks systems in the nation and protects and enhances natural resources and outdoor recreational opportunities throughout Massachusetts. DCR is a dynamic agency, and is one of the largest park systems in the nation. The DCR system includes over 450,000 acres of parks, forests, water supply protection lands, beaches, lakes, ponds, playgrounds, swimming pools, skating rinks, trails and parkways.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation seeks qualified applicants for the position Seasonal Forestry Assistant. Seasonal positions may be subject to the recall process and will be filled in accordance with collective bargaining agreements, positions not filled using this process will be interviewed for.
Duties: Forestry Assistants work outdoors in all types of weather; work in isolated areas; may be exposed to the hazards of power tools and equipment such as chainsaws and hoists and travel for job related purposes.
Assists in the preparation of forest management plans designed to provide water supply protection; assists in the interpretation of aerial photos, GPS and GIS data, and other cartographic work regarding forests; assists in the inventory of natural resources and the establishment and maintenance of state forest boundary lines.
Assists in planning and supervision of timber stand improvement work by state forest crews and private contractors.
Assists in the sale of wood products including preparing silvicultural prescriptions, minimizing adverse environmental impacts of harvesting, and ensuring contractual compliance by private contractors.
Cooperates with state and municipal authorities during emergencies and natural disasters such as forest fires, wind or ice storms, and insect infestations.
Performs related duties such as maintaining records and attending staff meetings.
Specific Duties:
- Collecting forest inventory data (CFI) including tree measurements, forest assessment, forest understory assessment, and coarse woody debris measurement.
- Processing forest inventory data with a computer.
POSITION INFORMATION:
Position: (2) Seasonal Forestry Assistant
Position 1 Location: Pittsfield Regional Office, 740 South Street Pittsfield, MA 01202
Position 2 Location: Amherst Field Office, 40 Cold Storage Drive, Amherst, MA 01004
Start Date: April 3, 2016
End Date: November 4, 2016
Qualifications:
Minimum Entrance Requirements:
Applicants must have at least (A) one year of full-time, or equivalent part-time experience in forestry or natural resource management, or (B) any equivalent combination of the required experience and the substitutions below.
Substitutions:
- An Associate’s or higher degree with a major in forestry or forestry management may be substituted for the required
experience.*
*Education toward such a degree will be. prorated on the basis of the proportion of the requirements actually completed.
Special Requirements: Possession of a current and valid Massachusetts Class D Motor Vehicle Operator’s License
This requisition will remain open until filled; however, first consideration will be given to those applicants that apply within the first 14 day
Minimum Entrance Requirements:
Applicants must have at least (A) one year of full-time, or equivalent part-time experience in forestry or natural resource management, or (B) any equivalent combination of the required experience and the substitutions below.
Substitutions:
- An Associate’s or higher degree with a major in forestry or forestry management may be substituted for the required experience.*
*Education toward such a degree will be prorated on the basis of the proportion of the requirements actually completed.
Special Requirements: Possession of a current and valid Massachusetts Class D Motor Vehicle Operator’s License.
An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Females, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.
Schedule: Full-time
Number of Openings: 2
Salary: 1,547.60 Biweekly
If you have Diversity, Affirmative Action or Equal Employment Opportunity questions or need a Reasonable Accommodation, please contact Diversity Officer / ADA Coordinator:: Agatha Summons Maguire – 617-626-1282
Bargaining Unit: 09-MOSES – Engineers/Scientists
Executive Director – Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC)
CTIC OPENS SEARCH FOR NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The board of directors of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) is searching for a new executive director as Karen A. Scanlon moves to another opportunity at Dairy Management. Inc., where she’ll be helping to support the sustainability and social responsibility initiatives of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
“We’re sad to see her leave CTIC, but are delighted that Karen has found an exciting new role in the agricultural sustainability space,” said Alan Ayers of Bayer CropScience, CTIC board chair. “Karen has done a great job and has been very successful in moving this organization to new heights, which will ease the transition into new leadership.”
“CTIC has grown significantly in size and scope under Karen’s tenure, becoming a key source of insight on conservation systems, cover crops, nutrient management and economic sustainability for farmers,” Ayers added. “CTIC’s Conservation in Action Tours have set the bar for connecting conservation-oriented people with each other and with the innovative farming systems on the ground. Additionally, the organization has dramatically increased its collaborative projects to become even more effective in building local capacity and championing conservation farming.”
A search committee has begun seeking an experienced leader and manager who can step into a vibrant organization with a dedicated staff and diverse lineup of projects and programs. Candidates for the executive director position should review the job description and contact the CTIC search committee at CTIC@CTIC.ORG. For more information on CTIC, visit www.ctic.org.
Summer Internships – Williams College
Summer Internships on Campus, Berkshire area & U.S. – Also: Summer Internship Funding: Check out dozens of campus and local environmental internships, all eligible for summer funding: Campus Emissions Research, Hopkins Forest Caretakers, Environmental Education, Sheep Hill environmental education, Farm Market/Ag research, Clark Art landscape internship, Environmental Analysis Lab, Hoosic River Watershed Association, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, and more…
http://ces.williams.edu/category/summer-jobs/
National/Global Summer Internships:
Dozens of enviro internships and research positions in the US, many developed specificallyby CES alumnae for Williams students HERE
CES Summer Funding for internships and research information and application form here.
Deadline: March 10 (second deadline: April 8).
Position required to apply for funding.
Commissioner & Associate(s) – Egremont Conservation Commission
Egremont Conservation Commission is seeking an additional Commissioner to join the Commission (about 2-4 hours per week, need not be an Egremont resident), and one or more Associates (non-voting position, flexible, could be suitable for high school student or recent graduate). Both positions offer opportunities to learn more about our local wetlands and ecosystems, to provide a needed public service, and/or to build your resume. Some training may be available.
For more information please email concom@egremont-ma.gov.
Office Manager, Part-time –
Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC)
Berkshire Natural Resources Council, a private, non-profit land trust based in Pittsfield, MA, seeks an energetic and organized person to become its Office Manager. The Office Manager supports BNRC’s programming as it pursues an ambitious conservation vision for the Berkshires.
Duties of the position include general clerical work and maintenance of accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, financial statements, and insurance policies. Proficiency in Quickbooks required; familiarity with real estate transactions is a plus. 20 hours per week with some flexibility; competitive salary. Send resume to Sally Cornwell, BNRC, 20 Bank Row, Pittsfield, MA 01201 or scornwell@bnrc.net. No phone calls, please.
2016 Berkshire Land Conservation Summer Internships –
Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC)
Berkshire Natural Resources Council (www.bnrc.net), a private, non-profit land trust based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is offering its 2016 Rice Fellowship to individuals exploring a career in the environmental field.
The internship dates are May 16 to September 2, with flexibility on both ends.
The 40-hour/week fellowship provides a stipend and lodging in a rustic cabin on Onota Lake in Pittsfield. There is a mix of approximately 90/10 field/office work. Fellows will gain valuable experience in resource management at a successful environmental organization while performing meaningful work in the Berkshires. BNRC is a small organization (staff of seven) unburdened by administrative formality. Rice Fellows enjoy an unusual level of independence compared with many internships; a large amount of self-motivation is required.
Responsibilities
- Public outreach (e.g., leading hikes and coordinating events)
- Land management
- Trail maintenance and construction
- Conservation restriction stewardship
- Invasive plant control
- Boundary work
- Other land management tasks as required
Requirements
- Ability to work unsupervised
- Comfort with being alone in the woods
- Ability to carry a 30 pound pack for 10 miles over rough terrain
- Willingness to work outside in all weather conditions
- Solid communication skills
- Personal transportation required
Fellows will gain:
- Trail-building skills
- Leadership skills
- Understanding of conservation restrictions
- Orienteering and boundary maintenance skills
- Understanding of ecological restoration theory and practice
- Basic understanding of land management techniques and challenges for land conservation
Interviews will begin on February 16, 2016. Please feel free to contact with questions or for more information. Applicants should email cover letter, résumé, and contact information for three references to:
Michael Leavitt, mleavitt@bnrc.net, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, 20 Bank Row, Pittsfield, MA 01201. (413) 499-0596
2016 Berkshire Trail Crew –
Berkshire Natural Resources Council (BNRC)
Berkshire Natural Resources Council (www.bnrc.net), a private, non-profit land trust based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is hiring 2 trail crew members for the 2016 season.
The season runs from May 31 to September 2 with some flexibility on both ends.
BNRC maintains more than 50 miles of trail, with more to be built in 2016. Trail crew members will work with the Trails and Outreach Coordinator to maintain existing trails and construct new ones. The crew will work with and alongside youth and professional trail crews. Some backcountry camping may be required. Members must have a high level of self-motivation, as the crew will often work without supervision. An hourly wage and free housing in a rustic cabin on Onota Lake in Pittsfield is provided. A head trail crew position is available for the right applicant.
Responsibilities
- Trail maintenance and construction
- Work with youth and professional trail crews
- Public outreach (e.g., leading hikes, communicating with hikers, etc.)
- Other stewardship/management tasks as needed
Requirements
- Experience with hand tools required
- Trail crew experience preferred
- Ability to work unsupervised
- Comfort with being alone in the woods
- Ability to carry a 50-pound pack for 5 miles over rough terrain
- Willingness to work outside in all weather conditions
- Experience working with youth preferred
- Personal transportation required
Head Trail Crew Position Requirements
- Trail Crew experience required
- Leadership experience preferred
Interviews will begin on February 16, 2015. Please feel free to contact with questions or for more information. Applicants should email cover letter, résumé, and contact information for three references to:
Michael Leavitt, mleavitt@bnrc.net, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, 20 Bank Row, Pittsfield, MA 01201. (413) 499-0596