What we do:

BEAT keeps you informed about environmental issues affecting Berkshire County.

Website - We maintain this website to help keep you informed about what is happening right now that may affect the environment of Berkshire County and what action you can take to protect the environment.

Newsletters - BEAT publishes a weekly e-newsletter and occasional paper newsletters that you can subscribe to for free. Or you may check out our News, Calendar, Public Notices, and Environment Monitor pages. (The Environmental Monitor lists projects with large potential environmental impacts.)

Monthly gathering - BEAT co-hosts, with the Center for Ecological Technology (CET) Pittsfield Green Drinks - a monthly gathering of environmentally minded individuals every third Tuesday of the Month starting at 5:15 pm at the Pittsfield Brew Works on Depot Street in Pittsfield. Everyone is welcome - please join us!

Televise meetings - BEAT videotapes the Pittsfield Conservation Commission hearings, the Berkshire Metropolitan Planning Organization meetings, and many other meetings that could have an environmental impact either positive or negative. These meetings are broadcast on local community access television - in fact, the Pittsfield Conservation Commission is now usually broadcast live. This has served to better educate the citizens of Pittsfield about the function of conservation commissions and to give individuals a voice in the permitting processes.

BEAT is supported by people like you, and by generous grants from:

Norcross Wildlife Foundation

Berkshire Environmental Endowment
and the
Community Fund (funds of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation)

Massachusetts Environmental Trust
Support the Trust - buy environmental license plates.

We work with group and individuals to accomplish our goals.

Individual Partners - We work with individuals to organize river cleanups, monitor and certify vernal pools, stop illegal dumping, turn in wetland and other environmental violations to the appropriate regulators, and stop inappropriate development. (Take a look at some of the issues we are working on or have worked on.)

Organizational Partners - BEAT works with numerous other organizations to accomplish our goals. We could not do this without them. Please, check out our links page that has connections to almost all the other environmental and conservation organizations in, and interested in, Berkshire County.

Volunteer Wildlife Monitoring - BEAT hosts Berkshire Keeping Track volunteer wildlife monitoring program with a vision of maintaining and enhancing the linkages among the already protected landscapes in and around Berkshire County, so wildlife will always have a way to move from one protected habitat to another with as little adverse human interaction (such as being hit by a car) as possible. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please let us know!

Reuse - We also serve on the Berkshire Brownfields committee; helping to cleanup contaminated sites around the county for reuse.

BEAT speaks out on important environmental issues.

Commenting - BEAT testifies at environmental hearings and submits written comments on most projects in Berkshire County that have a large enough impact to be listed in the Environmental Monitor. We also submit comments on state-wide and national policy and regulations.

A Seat at the Table - BEAT has a seat at the table for the Citizens' Coordinating Council meetings with General Electric Company (GE), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). With our partners we continually push for a better cleanup of the mess that GE made.

In 2002, a small group of people started BEAT when we watched as the system of laws and regulations failed to protect a vernal pool, even though the regulators at both the local and state level were aware of the concerns we raised.

This led BEAT to start videotaping the meetings of the Pittsfield Conservation Commission and broadcasting these meetings on local community television. Now these meetings are usually carried live. Not only did this make a difference in the way these meetings were conducted, but also the public became more aware of what the function of a conservation commission is (there are now many fewer questions about zoning issues, instead sticking to wetlands and conservation issues), and even better - one person came running into the meeting breathless, having seen the meeting on television and wanting to add their comments about the issue.

BEAT now videotapes several other meetings including the Berkshire Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Pittsfield Municipal Airport Commission, and the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority, as well as environmental meetings throughout the county.

In 2005, BEAT helped RATSSS (Residents Against the Transfer Station on South Street), stop a construction and demolition transfer station from being located on the bank of the only non-PCB polluted branch of the Housatonic River and 500 feet from peoples homes. BEAT proved the engineer had shown the riverfront boundaries incorrectly on the plans. The new location for this facility is about where we suggested would be an appropriate alternative site in the very beginning of the 3 year battle.

In 2006, a citizen came to us complaining that no matter who he complained to the city of Pittsfield was going to sell land along the Housatonic River that he said had been given to the city as conservation land, to a commercial venture to use as a parking lot. BEAT was able to have the Pittsfield Conservation Commission document that the land was indeed (it was stated in the deed) given as conservation land. The Commission then demanded that the property no longer be used for parking and eventually forced the city to install a barrier to prevent parking there.

In 2006, a volunteer came to BEAT asking for assistance starting a Keeping Track® wildlife monitoring group. Together we formed Berkshire Keeping Track. In 2007, the first group of BKT wildlife monitors graduated from training and are starting to monitor wildlife habitat in the Berkshires with a vision of maintaining and enhancing the wildlife habitat connections among protected landscapes in and around the Berkshires and, with our partners, all the way up through Vermont into Quebec.