News Headlines
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Open Space Investments to Expand Growth and Opportunity in Western Massachusetts
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Annual Christmas Bird Count Scheduled in North Berkshire for Dec 21
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Forest Preservation Area Designated In Central and Western Mass
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Federal Judge Crushes Fracking Plans on Conservation Land
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Only Half Of Drugs, Other Newly Emerging Contaminants Removed From Sewage
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BRPC Gets Input on National Forest Plan
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Job Opening: Regional Planner V, Department of Environmental Protection
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The Nature Conservancy – Urban Conservation Globe Intern, New York
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Funding Available for Environmental Research and Development
Open Space Investments to Expand Growth and Opportunity in Western Massachusetts
Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary (EEA) Rick Sullivan today announced more than $4.3 million in investments for parks, recreational spaces and open space conservation in 16 western Massachusetts communities. Secretary Sullivan made the announcement in Easthampton, where a $400,000 Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant will help make improvements at the Nashwannuck Pond Promenade Park.
“The Patrick Administration is committed to improving our parks and open spaces across the Commonwealth,” said Secretary Sullivan. “In addition to preserving open space, improving recreational opportunities and protecting the Commonwealth’s natural resources, these investments will create economic growth across the region.”
In addition to Easthampton, six other communities, Adams, Amherst, Athol, Holyoke, Springfield and West Springfield, received PARC grants. The PARC Program (formerly the Urban Self-Help Program) was established in 1977 to assist cities and towns in acquiring and developing land for park and outdoor recreation purposes. Any town with a population of 35,000 or more year-round residents, or any city regardless of size, that has an authorized park/recreation commission is eligible to participate in the program.
Governor Deval Patrick previously announced $1.7 million in PARC and Gateway City Parks grants to complete improvements to First Street Common in Pittsfield. The First Street Common is the only large, accessible public open space that serves the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsfield, and the completion of this project will help create a stronger connection between the downtown community and the surrounding neighborhoods.
A Gateway City Parks grant also went to Chicopee. The city will use $805,000 to complete phase two of the Szot Park Stadium improvement project. EEA created the Gateway City Parks Program in 2009 to develop and restore parks in urban neighborhoods. The program is designed to be flexible and provide municipal officials with a menu of funding options for all phases of park development. Twenty-six Massachusetts cities are eligible for the program, which targets communities with populations greater than 35,000 and median household incomes, per capita incomes and educational attainment levels below the state average.
Amherst and Belchertown received Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity (LAND) grants. Amherst will use its $105,665 grant to create a new community garden with a trail integrated throughout the property in East Amherst Village Center along the Fort River. Belchertown will use its $133,650 grant to double the size of the Jabish Brook Conservation Area. Since 1961, LAND grants have helped cities and towns acquire land for conservation and outdoor recreational uses. To qualify for the reimbursement grants, communities must fund projects upfront and the protected open space must be open to the public.
Drinking Water Supply Protection grants were announced for Northampton, Westfield and West Springfield and five Conservation Partnership grants, ranging from $7,500 to $85,000, were awarded to nonprofit organizations to help leverage funds to purchase land for conservation or recreation in Great Barrington, Hatfield, North Adams and South Hadley.
Strengthening the Patrick Administration’s commitment to urban park investments, Secretary Sullivan announced a new grant program that will build a playground or spray park in each of the Commonwealth’s 54 cities. The Our Common Backyards grant program will help cities create or renovate parks in the neighborhoods that need them most. Each city is eligible to receive up to $200,000 in grant assistance. The Our Common Backyards grant application will be available on Comm-pass and the EEA website soon.
For a complete list of projects and their descriptions by community, see attached.
Since taking office, Governor Deval Patrick has made a historic investment of more than $300 million in land conservation focused on three goals: investing in urban parks, preserving working farms and forests and protecting large natural landscapes for habitat. This investment has resulted in the permanent protection of more than 110,000 acres of land and the renovation or creation of more than 170 parks. The new parks and open space created are within a ten minute walk of 1.5 million residents – about a quarter of the Commonwealth’s residents.
According to a report by The Trust for Public Land, outdoor recreation generates $10 billion in consumer spending, $739 million in state and local tax revenue and $3.5 billion in wages and salaries each year in Massachusetts. This report also found that the state’s Gateway City Parks investments will create nearly 500 jobs and $26.5 million in local wages and salaries.
Annual Christmas Bird Count Scheduled in North Berkshire for Dec 21
North Berkshire Audubon invites area bird watchers to participate in the 114th national Christmas Bird Count. From December 14 through January 5 tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in an adventure that has become a family tradition among generations. Families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission – often before dawn. For over one hundred years, the desire to both make a difference and to experience the beauty of nature has driven dedicated people to leave the comfort of a warm house during the Holiday season.
The NBA Count will be held on Saturday December 21. The 24-hour count period begins at midnight Friday and extends to midnight Saturday.
There are four groups going out in our area; Adams, East Williamstown and North Adams, Central and western WIlliamstown and South WIlliamstown.
Teams of at least 2 will visit as many habitats as possible during the day, and also go out owling, to identify as many species and count as many individual birds as possible.
People in the area are also encouraged to track and report birds at their feeders. At the end of the day we will convene at Sheep Hill, the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation’s headquarters in Williamstown, for the count-up potluck.
Each of the citizen scientists who annually braves snow, wind, or rain to take part in the Christmas Bird Count makes an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations – and to help guide conservation action. From feeder-watchers and field observers to count compilers and regional editors, everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition — and with the knowledge that their efforts are making a difference for science and bird conservation.
North Berkshire Audubon is an informal group that sponsors bird walks and trips throughout the year. For more information about the Christmas Count or NBA, contact Leslie Reed-Evans at 413-458-5150 or at lre@wrlf.org.
Forest Preservation Area Designated In Central and Western Mass
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette thru the Mass Land E-News
About 421,000 acres in southern Central Massachusetts and nearby Western Massachusetts communities have been named by the forest service as the Heritage Corridor Forest Legacy Area. The designation means that landowners within the area could be eligible for land protection money from the federal government. The Forest Legacy Program is a partnership between participating states and the Forest Service to identify and help protect environmentally important forests from conversion to non-forest uses. It is a voluntary federal program that helps pay for the acquisition of land or interest in land. Under the program, land remains privately owned and landowners receive financial assistance in putting their land under conservation easement, which limits the right to develop the property. They can continue to harvest timber from their forest and manage their land for wildlife.
Together with eight landowners from Monson, Palmer, Ludlow and Belchertown, the state Department of Conservation & Recreation and Department of Fish & Game and local land conservation organizations – including the Norcross Wildlife Sanctuary, Opacum Land Trust, East Quabbin Land Trust, Kestrel Land Trust, Monson Conservation Commission and the MassConn Sustainable Forest Partnership – have applied to the Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program for money for this newly designated area. The applicants are looking to permanently protect 1,103 acres of forest through $2.8 million in land conservation funding.
The Heritage Corridor Forest Legacy Area includes all or parts of Brimfield, Brookfield, Charlton, Dudley, East Brookfield, Holland, Leicester, New Braintree, North Brookfield, Oakham, Paxton, Rutland, Spencer, Southbridge, Sturbridge, Ware, Wales, Warren and West Brookfield and the Western Massachusetts towns of Belchertown, Granby, Hampden, Ludlow, Monson and Wilbraham.
Federal Judge Crushes Fracking Plans on Conservation Land
From The Land Trust Alliance
Norcross Wildlife Foundation successfully defended a conservation easement from successor owners’ fracking plans. A federal court in Pennsylvania rejected the argument that the parties could not have intended to ban shale gas production because they didn’t consider it as a possibility when they signed the easement in 2002.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (Stockport Mountain v. Norcross Wildlife Foundation, No. 11-514, M.D. Pa.; 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121321) granted summary judgment in a lengthy opinion and order. The court found that the conservation easement unambiguously bans surface drilling.
Despite the fact that nobody could have predicted the development of fracking techniques and the subsequent drilling of the Marcellus shale deposit, the court wrote “The court cannot overlook the categorical prohibition in Section 4(c) [of the conservation easement] simply because the parties did not envision a boom in natural gas drilling.”
The judge also wrote that Pennsylvania law explicitly requires courts to liberally interpret the conservation easement to uphold the purposes and intent of conservation easements.
Only Half Of Drugs, Other Newly Emerging Contaminants Removed From Sewage
Only about half of the prescription drugs and other newly emerging contaminants in sewage are removed by treatment plants, according to a new report by the International Joint Commission, a consortium of officials from the United States and Canada who study the Great Lakes. Read more at Environmental Health News
BRPC Gets Input on National Forest Plan
By Stephen Dravis
iBerkshires Correspondent
There are 193 million acres in the national forest system. But, not one of those acres is in Massachusetts.
The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is working to see if that can change — not by carving out a piece of land on the order of California’s Sequoia National Forest, but by developing partnerships between private landowners interested in making their property part of a network of forestland with the National Forest designation.
“The [U.S.] Forest Service is interested in a new model for national forests,” BRPC Assistant Director Thomas Matuszko said on Tuesday evening. “This designation, which hasn’t been done before, is based on conservation restrictions with a small footprint. … Property would still be held by private landowners, but there would be restrictions for certain practices …
“We want to bring additional resources to the area as well as raise the visibility of the region as an important, resource-based area and an important area for forestry.”
Matuszko came to McCann Technical School for a two-hour meeting attended by about three dozen landowners and public officials from towns throughout the 20-town region identified by the Berkshire commission and its counterpart, the Franklin County Council of Governments.
The two non-profits are in the beginning stages of developing a proposal that ultimately would need to be approved by select boards in at least some of the towns in the region, the state Legislature, the Congress and, of course, the Forest Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“It’s a long process,” Matuszko said after the meeting. “But if it’s going to happen, it has to start somewhere.”
Matuszko emphasized throughout the meeting that his role was not to explain a fully-fledged idea but to gather input that can help frame the proposal down the road. Several times, he “turned around” questions on the questioner, asking how he or she would address the concern raised.
And just 30 minutes of the meeting was devoted to the formal presentation by Matuszko and Wendy Ferris of the Franklin Land Trust.
“A conservation restriction is a document that extinguishes certain rights for a parcel of land but reserves the right to farm, log or install trails,” Ferris explained. “The land stays in private ownership and can be sold. The land remains on the municipal tax rolls.”
And if the conservation restrictions work in conjunction with a National Forest designation, it could open the door to federal expenditures and bring other benefits to the region, Matuszko said.
Regional Planner V, Department of Environmental Protection
Application deadline: November 29, 2013 Job posting ID: J38450
Under the direction of the Waterways Program Chief, the person in this position will be primarily responsible for all activities associated with the permitting, planning, and policy related tasks associated with MGL c.91. Responsibilities will include: review of large and complex water-dependent and nonwater-dependent applications filed under 310 CMR 9.00; conducting public hearings and preparation of license conditions and other licensing documentation for Program Chief review; review of MEPA applications and drafting of comments for review by Waterways Program supervisor; use of the Department’s Presumptive Line mapping program and other historic documentation to determine jurisdiction; assist in policy development, implementation, and interagency coordination; participate in regulation change processes as directed by Waterways supervisor; participate in appropriate enforcement activities at the direction of waterways supervisor; work with Program staff and supervisor in the processing of c.91 appeals; supervision of staff of lesser grade as assigned by Program Chief. See full description here.
The Nature Conservancy – Urban Conservation Globe Intern, New York
This is a full-time, temporary internship position from June 1, 2014 – August 8, 2014. Position #41508
The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working to make a positive impact around the world in more than 30 countries, and the United States.
Through the GLOBE (Growing Leaders on Behalf of the Environment) internship program, The Nature Conservancy hires students and recent college graduates to fill paid internship positions during a 10-week summer internship. This is a unique opportunity for students and recent graduates to bridge the gap between what is learned in the classroom and on-the-ground work in the world of conservation. Additionally, the GLOBE program provides interns with the chance to directly work toward a sustainable future for our planet on the side of the Conservancy, the world’s largest environmental organization.
The GLOBE intern will assist with research, writing and monitoring of work findings in at least one of NYC’s focused themes related to Urban Conservation: Healthy Urban Trees, Freshwater Quality and Sourcing, Marine and Coastal Resilience and Biodiversity Assessment. Additionally, the intern will assist members of the “AppleSeed” initiative as requested which may also include hosting and supporting Community Engagement and production of publications. See full description here.
All applications must be submitted in the system prior to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on January 7, 2014.
Funding Available for Environmental Research and Development
ALEXANDRIA, VA, November 7, 2013—The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) is seeking to fund environmental research and development in the Resource Conservation and Climate Change program area. SERDP invests across the broad spectrum of basic and applied research, as well as advanced technology development. The development and application of innovative environmental technologies will reduce the costs, environmental risks, and time required to resolve environmental problems while, at the same time, enhancing and sustaining military readiness.
The Resource Conservation and Climate Change program area supports the development of the science, technologies, and methods needed to manage DoD’s installation infrastructure in a sustainable way. SERDP is requesting proposals that respond to the following focused Statements of Need (SON) in Resource Conservation and Climate Change:
– New Paradigms for Managing Species and Ecosystems in a Non-Stationary World
– Adapting to Changes in the Hydrologic Cycle under Non-Stationary Climate Conditions
Proposals responding to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 SONs will be selected through a competitive process. All pre-proposals are due to SERDP by Thursday, January 9, 2014. The SONs and detailed instructions are available on the SERDP web site at www.serdp-estcp.org/Funding-Opportunities/SERDP-Solicitations.
Learn More About Funding Available Through SERDP!
Participate in the webinar “SERDP Funding Opportunities” conducted by the SERDP Executive Director on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST. This “how to play” briefing will offer valuable information for those who are interested in new funding opportunities with SERDP. During the online seminar, participants may ask questions about the funding process, the current SERDP solicitation, and the proposal submission process. Pre-registration for this webinar is required. To register, visit https://cc.readytalk.com/r/tph55wxtau3m&eom. If you have difficulty registering, please contact the SERDP Support Office at partners@hgl.com<mailto:partners@hgl.com> or by telephone at 703-736-4547.