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CALENDAR OF EVENTS Advocacy News (Includes how to reach your legislators) DEP Enforcement Actions In The Berkshire return to top |
Community Energy News *This tip was brought to you with help from the U.S. Department of Energy Don't Forget! Pick up a home Energy Audit Kit from your local or college Library to conduct an energy audit in your home or dorm room! Conducting an energy audit can help you pinpoint where the most energy is being used and lost in your home. Collect data on shower water usage, record temperature variability from room-to-room, electricity usage data, and more! Just visit your Library and ask to check out an Energy Audit Kit. Winter is coming fast, take advantage of this ongoing opportunity to make cost-effective changes to conserve energy in your home! Please contact Take Charge with any questions, or watch for updates by visiting our website at www.takechargenorthadams.org. Get answers to the questions you have about the environment before the U.N. Climate Change Conference (Copenhagen) coming up Dec. 7-18th, 2009! 2. Friday, December 11th at the First Baptist Church on Eagle Street, North Adams, the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition will be holding their monthly forum. All are welcome to attend! Go to http://nbccoalition.org/ for more information. |
NOFA 5-DAY ACCREDITATION COURSE IN ORGANIC LAND CARE The 9th Annual Course in Organic Land Care will be held Jan. 13, 14, 15, 19 and 20, 2010 at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, MA. (new location!) For more information, contact Kathy Litchfield, NOFA/Mass Organic Land Care Program Coordinator, by email or telephone (413-773-3830). |
66th ANNUAL NORTHEAST FISH AND WILDLIFE CONFERENCE Save the Date Conference Theme CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS! Contact information for each of the track Chairs can be found at: http://www.neafwa.org/2010/index.html Please contact them if you have any questions or would like to discuss any thoughts or ideas regarding your presentation. Abstracts will only be accepted online. Applications and criteria are available at: https://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Register/IdentityConfirmation.aspx?e=10df2db8-f2b3-4ab7-8844-55b505cb329a The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010. |
EPA Issues Rule to Reduce Water Pollution from Construction Sites |
Grant opportunities with fast-approaching deadlines (1) American Hiking Society: National Trails Fund (2) Temper of the Times Foundation (3) The Fiscal Year 2010 Solicitation Notice for EPA's Environmental Education (EE) Grants Program is now available on-line at http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html. Please visit the site to review details about how to apply for an EE grant and to download the 2010 Solicitation Notice, Application, and Budget Form. Applications must be submitted in hard copy (paper) to EPA and must be postmarked by December 15, 2009 to be eligible for consideration. Along with the required Federal application forms, EPA is pleased to offer applicants a blank logic model template to use for identifying outputs and outcomes of the activities described in their proposals. Download the template, along with the application and budget form, from the EE Web site at http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants_apply.html. You can enter your information onto the Web site forms and print them out for submission to EPA. (4) DoSomething.org: Do Something Awards (5) The Corporation for National and Community Service has released a funding notice for its 2010 Learn and Serve America "Summer of Service" grants competition (http://www.learnandserve.gov/pdf/09_1026_nofa_lsa_summer.pdf), implementing a new program authorized under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The new grant funding - totaling $1 million dollars - will support innovative summer-time service-learning programs for students grades 6 through 9. Russ Cohen The Massachusetts Watershed Coalition |
NE GRASSROOTS ENVIRONMENTAL FUND SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM NEGEF’s small grants program provides grants to groups working on community level issues in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Fund interprets the word ‘environment’ broadly and will provide funding for a wide range of activities. Whole systems-thinking is critical to initiatives focused on making our environment better, healthier and more sustainable. Small grants are intended to support community groups who represent the most exciting energy in the environmental movement that are not being reached by traditional funders. Deadline February 15 Read more at: http://grassrootsfund.org/grants/small_grants/ |
FOREST FUTURES VISIONING PROCESS View materials and online discussions of the Advisory Group of Stakeholders (AGS) "your representatives in Forest Futures Visioning Process” and the Technical Steering Committee (TSC). This information is vitally important to forest management recommendations that will decide the future of MA forests. Get involved! Forest Futures Advisory Group of Stakeholders (AGS) (BEAT has a seat in this group) GoogleGroup: http://groups.google.com/group/forest-futures-advisory-group-of-stakeholders Forest Futures Technical Advisory Steering Committee GoogleGroup: http://groups.google.com/group/forest-futures-technical-steering-committee Past Public Meeting Schedule and Materials: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/news/publicmeetings/forestryfvp.htm and http://www.mass.gov/dcr/news/publicmeetings/forestryfvppast.htm. If you would like to submit a comment or suggestion for consideration, send an e-mail MODRDCRFFVP@umb.edu. |
“BRING BACK THE NATIVES” NFWF'S GRANT OPPORTUNITY Grant Applications Invited to Help Restore Populations of Native Aquatic Species Deadline: December 1, 2009 (Pre-proposal) The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, USDA Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited, are requesting pre-proposals from nonprofit organizations, universities, Native American tribes, and local, state, and federal agencies interested in restoring, protecting, and enhancing native populations of sensitive or listed aquatic species, especially on lands on or adjacent to federal agency lands. The BBN initiative funds on-the-ground efforts to restore, protect, and enhance native aquatic species to their historic range. Projects should involve partnerships between communities, agencies, private landowners, and organizations that seek to rehabilitate streamside and watershed habitats. Projects should focus on habitat needs of species such as fish, invertebrates, and amphibians that originally inhabited the waterways across the country. The BBN program will award twelve to twenty-two matching grants annually. The average grant size is approximately $60,000. Funds can support direct project-related salaries, contractual services, and materials needed for on-the-ground restoration, protection, and enhancement. Projects should demonstrate a two-to-one non-federal to federal match. Visit the NFWF Web site for complete program guidelines at: |
ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM - 2010 FELLOWSHIP Application Deadline: Friday, December 11 The Environmental Leadership Program is accepting applications for its Fellowship Program which offers "leadership and skill training, regional networking opportunities, and time for personal and professional reflection." Information & Application at: http://www.elpnet.org/index.php |
DFW & DCR LANDS UP FOR RE-CERTIFICATION - COMMENTS SOUGHT In April 2009 Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), a certification body accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), was retained by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to conduct a re-certification evaluation of the 550,000 acres of forest lands managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW). Certification by the FSC is professional acknowledgement that the landowner is practicing responsible forest management that is environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable. As part of the public participation process, SCS requires public comment on a complete listing of DCR and DFW lands to be included in, and excluded from, the scope of the certification and an explanation of reasons for excluding certain properties. The public comment period on the lists of lands will be from November 20, 2009 through December 20, 2009. The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife posted information about this process on October 30, 2009, with an original comment deadline of November 30, 2009, but DFW is extending its comment period through December 20, 2009 for the convenience of people who may want to comment on both DFW and DCR lands. Both agencies are specifically seeking public comments relative to the properties that will be included vs. excluded from the FSC re-certification process. The 2009 re-certification evaluation audit report, which was drafted in March 2009 and was completed in August 2009, can be found at http://www.mass.gov/Eoeea/docs/eea/lf/green_certification_report_2009.pdf. The evaluation report established major conditions that DCR and DFW must comply with before any state forest lands or state wildlife lands can be re-certified. The audit report determined that only lands with publicly reviewed management plans are eligible for recertification. To comply with this determination, both agencies identified a subset of lands presently eligible for recertification, a subset of lands that can become eligible for certification in the future, and a subset of lands that will not be submitted for certification for various reasons. To view the state forest lands lists with reviewed management plans go to http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/forestry/pdf/recertification-west.pdf. To view state forest lands without reviewed management plans, go to http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/forestry/pdf/recertification-east.pdf. Each list of state lands indicates which properties are eligible/appropriate for re-certification and those that are not. Comments on the state forest lands lists may be emailed to: fsc.comments@state.ma.us or sent by postal mail to: Bureau of Forestry, Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, Box 484, 40 Cold Storage Drive, Amherst, MA 01004. To view the state wildlife lands lists, go to: http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/management/bdi/forest_mgt/green_recert_efforts.htm Comments regarding the state wildlife lands lists may be emailed to Mass.Wildlife@state.ma.us, or sent via postal service mail to: "Forest Certification Comment", MassWildlife, 1 Rabbit Hill Road, Westborough, MA 01581. |
BIG GAINS FOR CONSERVATION IN FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS President Obama signed into law a Fiscal Year 2010 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that provides an overall boost of 17% over 2009 levels! That comes on the heels of an Agriculture Appropriations bill which fully funds the increases to easement programs approved in last year's Farm Bill. Here are some highlights:
For more information on these programs, please visit LTA conservation funding page at: http://www.landtrustalliance.org/policy/conservation-funding or Trust for Public Land's federal programs page at: http://www.tpl.org/tier2_cl.cfm?folder_id=191. |
SENATE CANDIDATES DEBATE ENVIRONMENT On Tuesday this week ELM, along with co-sponsors, organized a Senate Forum on the Environment for the four democratic Senate candidates: Mass AG Martha Coakley; Congressman Michael Capuano; City Year founder Alan Khazei; and Celtics Co-Owner Stephen Pagliuca. The candidates responded to questions from a panel of local media from the Boston Globe, WBUR and the BU Daily Free Press. The moderator was Jim Braude from NECN. |
Coming soon to Mass, but will Whole Foods’ new mobile slaughterhouses squeeze small farmers? Massachusetts poultry farmer Jennifer Hashley has a problem. From the moment she started raising pastured chickens outside Concord, Mass. in 2002, there was, as she put it “nowhere to go to get them processed.” While she had the option of slaughtering her chickens in her own backyard, Hashley knew that selling her chickens would be easier if she used a licensed slaughterhouse. Nor is she alone in her troubles. Despite growing demand for local, pasture-raised chickens, small poultry producers throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and even New York can’t or won’t expand for lack of processing capacity. http://www.grist. org/article/ 2009-11-20- Whole-Foods- chicken-farms/ |
BEAT has a couple projects that we need volunteers to help with Jane |
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