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BEAT is Watching
The Berkshire Community College
Soccer Field Project
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On November 22, 1989 the Massachusetts
Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program of the Massachusetts
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife notified the Pittsfield Conservation Commission of the certification of a vernal
pool on the campus of Berkshire Community College. On June 2, 1999
the Berkshire Kick-Off Classic Soccer Tournament announced plans to improve
the soccer fields on the college's campus. Although protection of the
vernal pool and improvement of the soccer fields were not in conflict,
a controversy was about to develop. The purpose of this web page is to
explore and document the nature of and the events related to this controversy.
Click on photo to enlarge.
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A view of the soccer field
construction site looking southeast from the Patterson Field house
on the Berkshire Community College Campus. Photo was taken in late-summer
2000. |
Click on photo to enlarge.
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In implementing the project
on their campus, Berkshire Community College appears to have violated
the state's Wetland Protection Act, damaged a certified vernal pool,
altered endangered species habitat, placed 110 truckloads of fill
in a floodplain, circumvented laws designed to ensure public accountability,
forged and altered public documents, and then presented those forged
and altered documents as evidence in a permitting process. |
The local regulatory agency responsible for
overseeing this process was the Pittsfield Conservation Commission,
charged by state statute with enforcing the Wetlands Protection Act.
It appears that the Commission in a number of instances failed to enforce
the relevant regulations and, by these failures and through a number
of procedural irregularities, allowed the destruction of a certified
vernal pool and the loss of endangered species habitat.
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The BCC Soccer Field Project
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