In the News
CALENDAR OF EVENTS Advocacy News (Includes how to reach your legislators) DEP Enforcement Actions In The Berkshire |
Entertaining, Fascinating, and Amusing Presentation on Track & Sign of Invertebrates |
EPA Housatonic River Citizens Coordinating Council (CCC)
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Am I an activist for caring about my grandchildren's future? I guess I am |
Hilltown 24 hour Bagshare bag sewing marathon in April! Sew bags for the 10 bagshare locations in the Valley, Hilltowns and Berkshire County. The Hilltown 24 hour sew marathon will be at The Village Church and Hilltown Sewing Center on Main Street in Cummington There will be 6 four hour shifts. We will require at least one experienced bag sewer to head up each shift. Please let me know if you can head up a shift. Sign up for a shift. You don't have to stay for the whole shift. No sewing experience is necessary. Here are the shifts: 7:30 a.m. -11:30 a.m. 11:30-3:30 p.m. 3:30-7:30 p.m. 7:30-11:30 p.m. 11:30-3:30 a.m. 3:30-7:30 a.m. The Creamery will be supplying Rattlesnake Brew coffee to keep the sewers going. The Creamery will open early for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday to feed the bag sewers!! We invite you to organize your own marathon in any increment so people travel shorter distances to participate. The marathon can be organized as a 4 /8/ 12/ 16/ or 24 hour marathon. We encourage ride sharing, car filling and carpooling, bike driven and human power to get to the marathon! For now e mail me to sign up and let me know if you are organizing a marathon in your area. Remember yours can be any amount of time you want. I hope that they all can be on the Saturday/Sunday before Earth Day so the bags can re-supply the 10 locations as an Earth Day action. Let me know your thoughts. This is a FUN thing! Leni |
Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead WASHINGTON – Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor. That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012. At a science conference in Washington Saturday, marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't. "There's some sort of a bottleneck we have yet to identify for why this stuff doesn't seem to be degrading," Joye told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. Her research and those of her colleagues contrasts with other studies that show a more optimistic outlook about the health of the gulf, saying microbes did great work munching the oil. "Magic microbes consumed maybe 10 percent of the total discharge, the rest of it we don't know," Joye said, later adding: "there's a lot of it out there." The head of the agency in charge of the health of the Gulf said Saturday that she thought that "most of the oil is gone." And a Department of Energy scientist, doing research with a grant from BP from before the spill, said his examination of oil plumes in the water column show that microbes have done a "fairly fast" job of eating the oil. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientist Terry Hazen said his research differs from Joye's because they looked at different places at different times. Joye's research was more widespread, but has been slower in being published in scientific literature. In five different expeditions, the last one in December, Joye and colleagues took 250 cores of the sea floor and travelled across 2,600 square miles. Some of the locations she had been studying before the oil spill on April 20 and said there was a noticeable change. Much of the oil she found on the sea floor — and in the water column — was chemically fingerprinted, proving it comes from the BP spill. Joye is still waiting for results to show other oil samples she tested are from BP's Macondo well. She also showed pictures of oil-choked bottom-dwelling creatures. They included dead crabs and brittle stars — starfish like critters that are normally bright orange and tightly wrapped around coral. These brittle stars were pale, loose and dead. She also saw tube worms so full of oil they suffocated. "This is Macondo oil on the bottom," Joye said as she showed slides. "This is dead organisms because of oil being deposited on their heads." Joye said her research shows that the burning of oil left soot on the sea floor, which still had petroleum products. And even more troublesome was the tremendous amount of methane from the BP well that mixed into the Gulf and was mostly ignored by other researchers. Joye and three colleagues last week published a study in Nature Geoscience that said the amount of gas injected into the Gulf was the equivalent of between 1.5 and 3 million barrels of oil. "The gas is an important part of understanding what happened," said Ian MacDonald of Florida State University. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told reporters Saturday that "it's not a contradiction to say that although most of the oil is gone, there still remains oil out there." Earlier this month, Kenneth Feinberg, the government's oil compensation fund czar, said based on research he commissioned he figured the Gulf of Mexico would almost fully recover by 2012 — something Joye and Lubchenco said isn't right. "I've been to the bottom. I've seen what it looks like with my own eyes. It's not going to be fine by 2012," Joye told The Associated Press. "You see what the bottom looks like, you have a different opinion." NOAA chief Lubchenco said "even though the oil degraded relatively rapidly and is now mostly but not all gone, damage done to a variety of species may not become obvious for years to come." Lubchenco Saturday also announced the start of a Gulf restoration planning process to get the Gulf back to the condition it was on Apr. 19, the day before the spill. That program would eventually be paid for BP and other parties deemed responsible for the spill. This would be separate from an already begun restoration program that would improve all aspects of the Gulf, not just the oil spill, but has not been funded by the government yet, she said. The new program, which is part of the Natural Resources Damage Assessment program, is part of the oil spill litigation — or out-of-court settlement — in which the polluters pay for overall damage to the ecosystem and efforts to return it to normal. This is different than paying compensation to people and businesses directly damaged by the spill. |
'Aeroecology' uses radar to track flying animals The power of the method could be massively increased with the use of more, smaller radar units Related Stories; The study of birds, bats and flying insects could be transformed by the use of technology designed for tracking storms, researchers say. Meteorologists once treated the signals from flying animals as a nuisance that complicated their measurements. But recent improvements in computing power and networking of radar stations have turned that nuisance signal into a valuable data source on animal ecology. A panel told the AAAS conference that radar could spot a single bee at 50km. <MORE> |
Green economies for growth, urges UN
Investing $1.3 trillion (£800bn) each year in green sectors would deliver long-term stability in the global economy, a UN report has suggested. Spending about 2% of global GDP in 10 key areas would kick-start a "low carbon, resource efficient green economy", the authors observed. They also recommended following policies that decoupled economic growth from intensive consumption. The findings have been published at a meeting attended by 100 ministers. "Governments have a central role in changing laws and policies, and in investing public money in public wealth to make the transition possible," said Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Programme's (Unep) Green Economy Initiative. <MORE> |
President Obama Announces Plan for Community-Based Conservation through the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama today announced the administration’s action plan, under the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, to achieve lasting conservation of the outdoor spaces that power our nation’s economy, shape our culture, and build our outdoor traditions. This initiative seeks to reinvigorate our approach to conservation and reconnect Americans, especially young people, with the lands and waters that are used for farming and ranching, hunting and fishing, and for families to spend quality time together. Recognizing that many of these places and resources are under intense pressure, the president established the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative last April to work with the American people in developing a conservation and recreation agenda that makes sense for the 21st century. The report released today outlines ways in which the federal government will help empower local communities to accomplish their conservation and recreation priorities by recognizing that the best ideas come from outside of Washington. Last summer, senior administration officials held 51 listening sessions across the country to gather input from Americans about the outdoor places and activities that they value most. These sessions drew more than 10,000 participants and more than 105,000 written comments, shaping an action plan that, based on local initiatives and support, when implemented will result in:
“With children spending half as much time outside as their parents did, and with many Americans living in urban areas without safe access to green space, connecting to the outdoors is more important than ever for the economic and physical health of our communities,” said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “Through the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, this administration will work together with communities to ensure clean and accessible lands and waters, thriving outdoor cultures and economies, and healthy and active youth.” “The America’s Great Outdoors Initiative is born out of a conversation with the American people about what matters most to them about the places where they live, work, and play,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “It’s about practical, common-sense ideas from the American people on how our natural, cultural, and historic resources can help us be a more competitive, stronger, and healthier nation. Together, we are adapting our conservation strategies to meet the challenges of today and empowering communities to protect and preserve our working lands and natural landscapes for generations to come.” “America’s farmlands and woodlands help fuel our economy and create jobs across the rural areas of our country,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This plan seeks to work in partnership with landowners, conservation groups, states and others to conserve our working lands and our public lands and to reconnect Americans – especially our nation’s youth – with opportunities to stay active. This blueprint was developed with input from the over 100,000 Americans in all corners of our country who joined our national listening sessions and who contributed their ideas online.” “This initiative is an effort to reconnect Americans with the valuable resources all around them and shape a 21st century plan for protecting our great outdoors,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “It is important that our waters, lands and greenspaces are brought back into our daily lives. President Obama’s initiative will help make these critical resources a national focus once again, and involve people of every background in conservation of the places that we hold dear.” Specifically, the report calls for fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, establishing a 21st century Conservation Service Corps to engage young Americans in public lands and water restoration, and extending the deduction for conservation easement donations on private lands beyond 2011, among other measures. The full report and additional information is available at: http://www.americasgreatoutdoors.gov |
Bottle Bill, Bottled Up Here’s the thing about the Bottle Bill, when you explain it to most people they go, “huh? That’s a controversy?” Apparently, even if you don’t explain it, most people feel that way: 77% of Massachusetts’s voters to be precise. This is according to the poll conducted by MassInc Polling Group for MLEV and MassPIRG. Support for updating the bill is very high across age, gender, race, regions of the state, and even party affiliation. The bill in question is actually an update of an already existing policy. When the familiar 5-cent fee was first added to carbonated beverage bottles in 1982, plastic bottles were not nearly as commonplace as they are now. Bottled beverages in 1982 were almost entirely soda and beer. Now non-carbonated water, tea, juice, and sports drinks are very common and are not being recycled. Roughly 20 billion of these beverages are consumed annually in the US, mostly out of plastic bottles. Because of the enormous boost seen in both recycling rates and litter reduction when a redeemable fee is placed in bottles it only makes sense to make this policy relevant to the new century. Unfortunately, House Speaker DeLeo came out strongly against legislation to update the bottle bill. We will be working hard with other organizations to pass the bill, despite this major road block. |
CSA @ HSV That's right! We're starting a CSA at Hancock Shaker Village. The Hancock Shakers were known far and wide for the quality of their produce. Shaker-grown food meant the most flavorful and well-produced. We are thrilled to continue that tradition through the offering of CSA memberships. We're looking forward to engaging the community in working with us to sustain the best farming practices we can in Berkshire County. Here are the details:
Shareholders are not required to volunteer with harvesting, but are welcome to do so. A deposit of $100 will be due with sign-up, and the balance will be due by Memorial Day. Download a Shareholder Registration Form now! Questions? Want to sign up? Call us at 413.443.0188 x213, or e-mail: lwolf@hancockshakervillage.org |
New Maple Passport Program Begins March 4th MMPA will have official “passports” that sugar markers will sign with the sugarhouse name and the date of the visit. A “Passport” can be downloaded from www.massmaple.org as well as obtained from sugarhouses open to the public. There will be a ceremonial tapping of a sugar maple tree to kick off the brief but sweet season on March 4th at 10 a.m. at Zawalick’s Sugarhouse in Northampton. Heralding the onset of the growing season, maple sugaring is the Commonwealth’s first agricultural harvest of the year. In addition to tapping a sugar maple, area legislators and members of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, MDAR Commissioner Soares will read the proclamation declaring March as “Massachusetts Maple Month. For more information contact Winton Pitcoff, MMPA Coordinator at winton@massmaple.org, or visit www.massmaple.org. |
Yestermorrow Launches Semester Program in Sustainable Design/Build Learn more |
The FY 2012 State Budget Process has Begun! On January 26, 2011 Governor Patrick released his FY 2012 budget recommendations, referred to as H1. To review the Governor's proposal, click here for his press release or click here to link to H1. The next step in the budget process, public hearings on H1 held by the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means, commenced this week. These hearings are broken down by specific spending area topics and take place at locations statewide. Senator Downing and Representative Chris Speranzo have been tasked with chairing a budget hearing in Pittsfield. The hearing will convene at 10am on March 1, 2011 at Bowland Theatre at Berkshire Community College. During the hearing House and Senate Ways and Means Committee members will receive testimony from officials representing the state Energy, Environment and Transportation agencies. Members of the public are welcome to attend the hearing, but testimony is limited to state officials, by invitation only. To learn more about the process used to craft the state's annual operating budget, click here for Senator Downing's newsletter explaining the process and time frame necessary to develop the state's spending plan. |
Request for Proposals Solar Hot Water Performance Monitor The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) has issued a Request For Proposals for a solar hot water performance monitoring consultant to analyze performance data from solar hot water installations in Massachusetts. Please submit all questions to solarhotwater@masscec.com by Friday, February 23, 2011 "SHW Performance Monitoring Consultant" must appear in the email subject line. Final Questions and Answers will be Posted to the webpage above on February 25, 2011. Proposals are due no later than 4 p.m. on March 2, 2011. |
BERKSHIRE CHEFS CELEBRATE THE FIRST HARVEST OF THE SEASON AT BERKSHIRE GROWN’S MARCH MAPLE DINNER ON MARCH 14 GREAT BARRINGTON, MA. (Feb. 17, 2011) -- Seven talented Berkshire Grown chefs will create a maple-inspired dinner on Monday March 14, at Gala Restaurant & Bar at The Orchards Hotel in Williamstown to celebrate maple sugaring season, the first harvest of the year, as a fundraiser to benefit Berkshire Grown. Several chefs will join host Christopher Bonnivier, executive chef of Gala Restaurant & Bar to create a delicious multi-course meal featuring local ingredients available at this time of year. Chefs include Brian Alberg of The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge; Adam Brassard of The Williams Inn in Williamstown; Nicholas Moulton of Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown; Joshua Needleman of Chocolate Springs in Lenox; Peter Platt of The Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough; and, Gregg Roach of Wild Oats Market in Williamstown. “I’m looking forward to cooking with some of the top chefs of Berkshire County,” said Chris Bonnivier. “Each year we truly have a great time cooking for people who love and appreciate well-prepared food. The Berkshire Grown March Maple Dinner is a great way to celebrate the 2011 growing season.” Hors d’oeuvres, accompanied by a complimentary tasting of local beverages from Barrington Brewery and Berkshire Mountain Distillers, will begin at 6 pm. Dinner starts at 7 pm and a cash bar will be available. Tickets to the dinner are $120 per person. Berkshire Grown members will receive a discounted ticket price of $95. Berkshire Grown member farmers receive a discounted ticket price of $65. Community members who join Berkshire Grown before the dinner may purchase tickets at the discounted member price. To reserve a space, call the Berkshire Grown office at 413-528-0041. Visit http://www.berkshiregrown.org to see the menu. Gala Restaurant & Bar is located at 222 Adams Road in Williamstown. The Orchards Hotel is offering a special $89 rate for a room for the night. Please call 413-458-9611 to reserve a room. Berkshire Grown envisions a community where healthy farms define the open landscape, where a wide diversity of fresh, seasonal food and flowers continue to be readily available to everyone, and where we celebrate our agricultural bounty by buying from our neighboring family farms and savoring their distinctive Berkshire harvest. Berkshire Grown champions farmers’ markets and CSAs, creates local food and farm networks, promotes the Farm-to-Table relationship between restaurants and growers, and educates the community about the importance of eating healthy locally grown food. For more information about supporting Berkshire Grown, call 413-528-0041 or visit www.berkshiregrown.org. Sheryl Lechner |
Cleanup Needed NOW at Vermont Yankee Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) submitted its proposal to the Vermont Public Service Board recommending strong action in response to the ongoing leaks and contamination at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power facility. “Entergy VY’s actions in response to the leaks have been and continue to be irresponsible and inadequate.” CLF’s filing highlights the lackluster response of Vermont Yankee’s owners to the leaks. With new contamination revealed only two weeks ago, it is long past time for Vermont regulators to take action. CLF Recommendation |
Conservation Innovation Opportunities for 2011 From the Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest in association with the Conservation Finance Forum Enrollment Open for 2011 Yale Conservation Finance Camp For further information and a participant application please contact Amy Badner at The inaugural 2011 Acadian Internship Program is now accepting applications from students and conservation organizations for summer 2011. This innovative program combines formal coursework, offered for credit through the University of Maine's Summer University, with a four-week internship program to be hosted across the Downeast Maine and southwest New Brunswick region. Students may be considered for the Internship program, and conservation entities can propose to sponsor interns, by completing brief applications available online at acadianinternship.wordpress.com. Coursework begins at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) in Acadia National Park, July 11, 2011. Co-instructors Dr. Rob Lilieholm of the University of Maine School of Forest Resources and Dr. Megan Gahl of the University of New Brunswick will provide an intensive week of coursework in conservation theory, tools, and methods. A diverse set of faculty, local experts, and guest lecturers - plus field trips and case studies within the region - will ground students in the resources and challenges within the study area. For the next four weeks, Interns will work with a variety of field sponsors, gaining meaningful, hands-on internship experience. Finally, Interns will reconvene at SERC to place what they learned in their field experience within the greater context of large landscape-scale conservation. The wrap-up will include formal project presentations open to all stakeholders. In addition to qualified students, the program is currently seeking partner organizations that would be interested in sponsoring a team of interns to complete a focused project. Potential partners should contact Dr. Sarah Nelson at acadianinternship@gmail.com. Managers frequently conduct operations to control forest structure or composition, improve wildlife habitat, remove invasive species, or influence biogeochemical processes without comparing their results with unmanaged areas nearby. Conversely, research projects in unmanaged areas are seldom coupled for analysis with adjacent, actively managed lands. Interested? Get Involved! What is Stewardship Science? Stewardship Science is just one part of the Wildlands and Woodlands forest conservation vision for New England. With the Stewardship Science initiative, we have created a simple, easy-to-use protocol to establish permanent, paired research plots in conserved woodlands and wildlands. Results from these studies can shed light on the long-term impacts and effectiveness of management practices that seek to:
The project not only provides valuable ecological and silvicultural insights, but is also an exciting outreach tool for engaging students and the public in the importance and enjoyment of ecological research. All involved gain longer-term perspectives on ecological processes, land stewardship, and land conservation. We encourage interested landowners, organizations, scientists, and others to get involved by establishing their own monitoring plots, making use of data from existing sites, or becoming a regional representative in their area. Contact: James N. Levitt, Director |
Applications Open: Pioneer Valley Summer of Solutions
Apply to be a participant! |
Part time Stewardship Coordinator Sought The East Quabbin Land Trust of Hardwick is seeking a part time person to coordinate and conduct stewardship responsibilities on EQLT owned properties and properties under conservation restriction. Responsibilities include but not limited to preparing management plans; ensuring boundaries are marked; annual monitoring of conservation restrictions; maintaining databases; leading volunteers and/or interns; completing CR baseline documentation reports; and working effectively with contractors, the general public and the Board of Directors. Computer and cartographic skills and knowledge essential; experience with GPS and GIS is desirable, as is a background in natural resources. Please visit www.eqlt.org for the full position description. To apply: send cover letter, resume, and three references to: Stewardship Coordinator Search, East Quabbin Land Trust, P.O. Box 5, Hardwick MA 01037 or by email to chenshaw@eqlt.org. |
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