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Discovery by State Marine Biologists Explains Sharks' Seasonal Disappearance Satellite tracking shows basking sharks migrate from Cape Cod to South America Click here for a link to a PDF version of the study BOSTON – The Commonwealth added to the body of scientific knowledge about basking sharks, the world’s second largest fish, with today’s publication of research led by a state marine fisheries expert that identifies the shark’s previously unknown winter habitat – a discovery that has implications for the species’ conservation. Once thought of as a strictly cool-water species, basking sharks migrate to tropical waters each winter, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology. Gregory Skomal, a biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), is lead author of the study, which reveals that western Atlantic basking sharks, which were previously believed to inhabit only the waters of the United States and Canada, use marine habitat that stretches the length of the Atlantic Ocean. Using satellite-based technology, Skomal and other researchers found that basking sharks travel from the coast of southern New England to the Bahamas, the Caribbean Sea and to the coast of South America, swimming at depths of 600 to 3,000 feet or 200 to 1,000 meters for several weeks or months. The research is significant because the species has undergone population declines in recent years, and scientists will now have a better understanding of its habitat. |
Appalachian Mountain Club could use Your Help |
Ashmere Lake Drawdown in Question By Jack Dew, Berkshire Eagle Staff Ashmere Lake in Hinsdale was drawn down too far by the Department of Recreation and Conservation. HINSDALE — Regulators are investigating whether the state Department of Conservation and Recreation broke the law with an excessive drawdown of Ashmere Lake. The Department of Conservation and Recreation began lowering the lake on April 7, said DCR Commissioner Richard Sullivan, after the agency decided the water was too high and posed a flood risk. Now, the state Department of Environmental Protection is trying to determine what went wrong when the drawdown went too far, lowering Ashmere by 5 feet and exposing acres of shoreline. Sullivan said his staff opened a valve that drains the lake on April 5 and left it open, planning to draw off roughly 2.5 feet of water. Based upon how the lake has drained in the past, the DCR expected to leave the valve open for more than two weeks to reach the desired level. But when a crew returned on April 19, they found that Ashmere had fallen 5 feet, well below acceptable levels. |
PLEASANT VALLEY DAY AT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY Mass Audubon’s Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary welcomes all to Pleasant Valley Day on Saturday, June 6 at 472 W. Mountain Rd., Lenox, from 10 am to 4 pm, rain or shine. In celebration of the sanctuary’s 80th birthday, underwritten by Greylock Federal Credit Union, with additional support from Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America, CompuWorks, HD Associates, and Pittsfield Cooperative Bank, all events are free of charge. At 10 am, fiddler George Wilson will welcome visitors with traditional tunes. Puppets will perform “Dr. Marmalade’s Watershed Waltz” at 11 am, and musician David Grover will entertain at noon. Wildlife rehabilitator Julie Collier will present Live Raptors at 1:30 pm, followed by naturalist Tom Tyning’s live Frogs and Friends at 3 pm. Throughout the day, families are invited to explore the sanctuary’s seven miles of pond, forest, and stream trails. For more than sixty years, the sanctuary’s daycamp has offered outdoor education and fun for children. Its birds, wildlife, plants, and natural environment have attracted visitors from around the world. |
Films about our Planet! Films that Inspire! Join the Lenox Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Committee when they host the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival on Sunday, May 24, 2009, at 6:30pm at the Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial Middle and High School, East Street , Lenox. Wild & Scenic On Tour brings together a selection of films from the annual festival held the second week of January in Nevada City , CA. “The films tell a story about our planet, highlighting issues, providing solutions and giving a call to action,” says Tour Manager, Susie Sutphin. “Their collective energy empowers communities to initiate conversations that can bring about collaborative efforts that positively impact our planet.” The Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival was started by the watershed advocacy group, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) in 2003. SYRCL is sharing their success as an environmental group with others organizations to bring the festival to over 90 communities nationwide. It is building a network of grassroots organizations connected by a common goal of using film to inspire activism. The festival’s namesake is in celebration of achieving Wild & Scenic status for 39 miles of the South Yuba River in 1999. As they celebrated their 7th annual in January 2009, the 3-day event featured over 125 award-winning films and welcomed guest speakers, celebrities, and activists who brought a human face to the environmental movement. The film festival brings a community together. “Film is an artistic language that crosses political and social boundaries and offers a place for diverse perspectives to intertwine and mingle,“ says environmental activist Lesley Adams of Medford , OR . “Film is a wonderful medium with which to bring divergent interests together around universal issues and discover that we have more in common than our perceived and historical differences might suggest. “ Featured at the Lenox festival are 13 films ranging in length from one minute (full of punch!) to 41 minutes. Two will showcase Brower Youth Award Winners from 2008. These awards, established by the Earth Island Institute, honor a new generation of leaders, and youth especially will be inspired by these examples of activism. The longest film of the evening, Division Street , will take us on a journey from pristine roadless areas to concrete jungles, following the filmmaker as he tours North America, dodging Yellowstone’s grizzlies and Miami ’s taxicabs, and highlighting sustainable road projects and wildlife corridors for the 21st century. The festival is a natural extension of all the local work being done here in the Berkshires to inspire people to act on behalf of the environment. There will be opportunities during the intermission and after the films to get engaged in local groups doing work around Berkshire County . There will also be many giveaways provided by some of the festival’s national sponsors, Clif Bar, Toms of Maine, and Sierra Nevada Brewing. There will also be a raffle drawing with the lead prize being two lift tickets to wind-energy-generating Jiminy Peak and several kites and more. EVENT DETAILS: For more information: Contact Susan Olshuff, events@lenox.org, 413-637-2643 – www.lenox.org |
Message from Senator Downing As mentioned in the special announcement sent last Friday, over the next two weeks, the Patrick Administration will be holding community forums on choices and priorities facing Massachusetts in the current economic climate. Governor Patrick launched the statewide series of public meetings to give local residents an opportunity to discuss the difficult budget decisions, reform proposals and revenue packages being debated on Beacon Hill. As promised last week, below are details for all four forums being held in my Senate district. I encourage everyone to attend. For additional information on these and other forums held across the state, please visit: www.mass.gov/governor/forum. Summaries of the forums, along with videos and questions will be posted to this site. To find out more information, please call the Governor's office at (617) 725-4025. WHO: DCR Commissioner Rick Sullivan |
Housatonic River Remediation Documents submitted to Repositories (Documents are all available on the website.) Documents submitted to the Berkshire Athenaeum Letter (with attached report) from Gates (GE) to Tagliaferro (EPA), Letter from Tagliaferro (EPA) to Mooney (GE), April 27, 2009, Re: 2008 Letter from Fisher (EPA) to Gates (GE), April 28, 2998, Re: Conditional Documents submitted to the Connecticut Repositories Letter from Tagliaferro (EPA) to Mooney (GE), April 27, 2009, Re: 2008 |
Area middle school students to compete in Junior Solar Sprint The JSS is a fun and educational competition for students in grades 5-8 who work in teams to build model vehicles powered by the sun. They learn firsthand about non-polluting transportation. The races and judging begin at 10 a.m. and end at noon. Registration for students begins at 9 a.m. Solar vehicles will be judged for speed, craftsmanship, innovation and technical merit, and the top three winners in each category will be eligible to compete in the regional JSS championship in Springfield on June 14. The JSS is sponsored by Western Massachusetts Electric Company, Energy Federation, Inc., Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Local Pittsfield sponsors also include Pittsfield Brew Works, Guido’s Fresh Marketplace and Berkshire Bank. For more information about the JSS or CET’s solar energy curriculum, contact Nancy Nylen at nancyn@cetonline.org or Cynthia Grippaldi at 413-445-4556, ext. 25 or cynthiag@cetonline.org. CET is a non-profit community organization working to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, waste management and environmental education in western MA. CET is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. |
The 2007 Solid Waste Data update is now posted on MassDEP's web site on this page: Gretchen Brewer |
SPECIAL UPDATE: LAND-BASED WIND POWER Since January, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) has been refining legislation regarding siting and permitting of land-based wind turbines. EEA formed a commission of environmental groups, wind developers, municipal officials, legislative staff, and state agency staff to develop language. Mass Audubon was not a voting member of the commission, but participated in meetings and provided comments and suggestions. EEA finalized the bill Tuesday of this week. A legislative hearing will be held next Wednesday, May 20th. The hearing is open to the public and testimony can be submitted at the hearing and/or in writing. The hearing is for Senate Bill 1504 (Senator Morrissey) and House Bill 3065 (Representative Dempsey) both of which were filed as placeholder bills for EEA; the presumption is that the language offered by EEA will replace the text of these bills. For details and bill language, see below. Mass Audubon is supportive of the language developed by the commission and is preparing testimony. This legislation represents a change in the siting process for land-based wind energy facilities. Under current law (M.G.L. Ch164 s. 69G Q), all power generating facilities that produce greater than 100 megawatts (MW) can obtain a consolidated permit from the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB). Those that generate under 100 MW go through all relevant state and local permits and are subject to all appeals. The proposed legislation would allow wind energy facilities that generate more than 2 MW to go through a consolidated, expedited permitting process before the EFSB. The standards for review would be as protective as all state environmental laws and regulations. Standards would also be created for large undeveloped areas and non-listed bird and bat species, as well as significant scenic and recreational areas. Local and state permits would be consolidated with final permitting decisions made by the EFSB with the exception that if the facility did not meet the standards, and was denied at the local level, the EFSB could not override the local decisions. The EFSB would have the authority to override all state and local permitting decisions if the standards are met. If a proposed wind energy facility meets siting standards, including those for rare species and non-listed birds and bats, a permit is guaranteed. If it does not meet standards, the permit is discretionary. There would be one route for appeal via the Supreme Judicial Court. In addition, the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and a municipal representative would be added to the EFSB. Mass Audubon has advocated for the addition of DFG to the board for several years, as they are the permitting agency overseeing rare species and wildlife that can be impacted by the siting of energy facilities and transmission lines. Concurrent with this process, the administration released a report identifying capacity for renewable power on state lands. The report finds up to 946 MW of wind power potential on state properties, the majority of which are owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and are protected under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution. The proposed legislation requires EEA to further analyze the potential for wind power generation on state conservation lands, identifying unsuitable areas and ensuring that those areas would not be developed. The review of Article 97 lands builds upon Secretary Ian Bowle’s message in the report cover letter. This would be a public process. See links below. Renewable Energy and Efficiency Potential on State-Owned Facilities Hearing Details Hearings are open to the public. Arrive early in order to go through security and to add your name to the testimony list. When you enter the hearing room, ask for the sign up list if you wish to testify. You can also submit written testimony, addressed to the committee chairs. There is no final date for submitting testimony, but it is typically delivered within a week of the hearing. Testimony should reference the bills being heard (EEA Language as substitution for SB1505 and HB3065) and be addressed to: The Honorable Michael W. Morrissey The Honorable Barry R. Feingold For more information, contact Mass Audubon’s Legislative Director, Jennifer Ryan at jryan@massaudubon.org. |
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