MA Governor Maura Healey ordered a government-wide ban, preventing state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles

BEAT's response, written by Andrew Ferrara

Williamstown to Hold March to End Fossil Fuels on September 20 at 5 PM

Press Release

"On Wednesday, September 20, a coalition of local faith, environmental, and community groups will host a March To End Fossil Fuels in Williamstown. Participants will gather in front of First Congregational Church at 906 Main Street to rally and hear brief remarks before marching to Field Park for a standout. Everyone who is concerned about the accelerating climate crisis and continued burning and expansion of fossil fuels is encouraged to attend. Signs are welcome. [...] The event is being held in solidarity with the National March To End Fossil Fuels, taking place in New York City on September 17 in advance of the September 20 United Nations Climate Ambition Summit. Thousands are expected to take to the street at that time to demand President Biden take bold action to stop climate change." READ MORE

Community Issued Currency: a Tool for Relocalizing Economies

Susan Witt | Schumacher Center

"Earlier this year, Executive Director Susan Witt delivered a new presentation on local currency innovation in the Berkshires. Her remarks were given during a roundtable on Credit Design & Community Development at Harvard Law School's Money as a Democratic Medium 2.0 Conference in June. In it, Witt looks back at the history of local currency in the Berkshire region. And she envisions a transformative future in which place-based money, like our region's own BerkShares, is issued through low-cost, productive loans. 'Today, as the world catches up to the urgency of climate change and widening inequality, Schumacher’s question of scale returns to the fore. As Small is Beautiful taught, a shift from the prevailing trend of faceless globalization toward place-based, ecologically responsible, and human-scale production remains essential to a just and regenerative future. However, to foster local economies, we need the economic tools appropriate in scale for the task... This then was the task we set for ourselves with the creation of BerkShares—to design a local currency system that would support local production for local consumption, encouraging what [Jane] Jacobs called import-replacement.' Witt charts decades of development that ultimately led to BerkShares, from the S.H.A.R.E. loan collateralization circle, to Deli Dollars and Farm Preserve Notes. Time and again, area residents showed their willingness to take imaginative leaps, trusting in their neighbors' capacities and embracing the idea that currency is simply a tool to help address area needs and achieve common goals. These iterations led in 2006 to BerkShares, our fully-fledged community currency. Backed one-to-one with US Dollars, BerkShares are today accepted by some 350 area business and have over 140,000 notes out in area circulation." READ MORE

» Did you know? BEAT accepts donations in the form of BerkShares!

Williamstown Farmers Market expands food insecurity programs

Press Release

"...Since its founding in 1981, addressing food insecurity has been one of the Williamstown Farmers Market’s goals. In recent years, however, the Board has prioritized food insecurity issues through the expansion of the market’s various programs. In addition to matching SNAP/EBT dollars, up to $30 per week, WFM has recently added the ability to double the expanded value of Senior/WIC coupons. These two matching programs, which are possible due to a grant from Berkshire Agricultural Ventures and Farm Credit East, allow the market to make fresh, local produce more accessible and affordable. The extra funds given to SNAP/EBT and senior coupon patrons also help provide our local farmers with much-needed support through their purchases. The Community Essentials Initiative, the other side of WFM’s commitment to fighting food insecurity, is going strong this summer. At the end of every market, excess produce is bought through a combination of grants and donations; this produce is then donated to local food pantries in Williamstown and North Adams. By simultaneously supporting our local farmers through more purchases and providing fresh produce to local food pantries, WFM is holding true to its mission to 'Grow Community' in Northern Berkshire County." READ MORE

Students challenged their school boar to act on sustainability — and it worked

Deepa Fernandes & Ashley Locke | WBUR

"Salt Lake City schools are proof of the power of youth environmental activism. The district is moving forward on ambitious sustainability renovations at a pace and scale advocated for by students and parents. [...] Then in 2020, students and parents came together through grassroots advocacy and supercharged his efforts. They rallied their school board to unanimously pass a clean energy resolution, and now the fruits of their labor are being realized. [...] The school board approved a performance contract for $29 million dollars worth of work that has included retrofitting 34 schools that did not have LED lighting and new water conservation measures and solar panels on six schools. The changes, he says, will put a substantial dent in greenhouse gas emissions." READ MORE

Monument Mountain in Stockbridge to be returned to indigenous people

Alanna Flood & Ashley Shook| WWLP

"The Commonwealth announced it is purchasing land on Monument Mountain in Stockbridge to return it to the indigenous people who once called it their homeland. The money comes from the state’s climate resiliency initiatives through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program. Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll was in Stockbridge Wednesday to announce the state is giving a $2.2 million grant to the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans so they can reclaim some of their homeland on Monument Mountain. In addition to this historic commitment, Driscoll said the state is providing $31.5 million to 56 municipalities in order to address vulnerabilities in preparation for climate change. This money will fund 79 local projects. The president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans speaks to the significance of this grant. 'Our mission is to continue to foster and create relationships centered around integrated capital solutions and capacity building with our Tribal Nation, alongside partners, changemakers, community developers and partners like the state of Massachusetts,' said Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans President Shannon Holsey. 'We are creating a paradigm shift in how society invests in tribal nations by grounding an investment strategy in Indigenous systems thinking, recognizing the interconnectedness of all things and our responsibilities to our homelands and each other. Our approach ensures a resilient and regenerative framework from start to finish, built around the origins of our homeland.'" READ MORE

More than 100 protestors arrested in New York City while calling on the Federal Reserve to end fossil fuel financing

Keerti Gopal | Inside Climate News

"In one of the largest acts of civil disobedience to protest climate change in New York in a decade, more than 100 climate protesters were arrested on Monday after blockading the entrances to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where they called on financial regulators to curb fossil fuel financing. [...] Part of a growing push for climate accountability from central banks and financial regulators, the protesters urged President Biden and the Federal Reserve to take action on climate change by regulating fossil fuel companies and treating oil, gas and coal as high-risk investments. [...] The protest, organized by Climate Defenders, New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Oil and Gas Action Network and Planet over Profit, took place just one day after an estimated 50,000 to 75,000 people marched the streets of New York City to urge President Biden to curtail the use of fossil fuels. [...] As the warming climate fuels extreme weather disasters, financial damages from climate change grow, but the world’s largest banks continue to funnel billions into the fossil fuel sector. Of the banks most aggressively financing fossil fuels since world governments committed to phase them out as part of the Paris Agreement of 2016, the top four are based in the U.S., the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gasses. Despite its disproportionate contributions to the climate crisis, the U.S. continues to trail peer countries in regulating financial institutions’ support of industries driving global warming." READ MORE

Cliffs Host Varied Flora and Fauna

Susan Shea | Northern Woodlands – The Outside Story

"...Cliffs are defined as areas of exposed bedrock with a slope greater than 60 degrees. We tend to think of cliffs as solely geological features. But they also host distinct natural communities of plants and animals. While lichens and mosses can grow on bare rock, many plants must find cliff shelves, cracks, and crevices where soil has accumulated to grow. Because soil is sparse, most cliff-dwelling plants are small. These include sedges, grasses, ferns, and wildflowers. On ledges or in cracks where there is more soil, shrubs and small trees may sprout. Climate and type of bedrock are the most important factors that determine which species of plants inhabit specific cliffs. Sun exposure, slope, moisture availability, air currents, and the direction the cliff faces also influence the type of vegetation that can grow here. [...] The chemical composition of a cliff’s bedrock strongly influences the plant community. Calcareous bedrock, such as limestone, marble, and calcareous schist, releases calcium and magnesium, important plant nutrients, as it weathers. As a result, both boreal and temperate calcareous cliffs have a high diversity of plant species, some rare, and have long been a magnet for botanists. [...] Cliffs and open talus are unique and relatively rare habitats in the Northeast. Their plant and animal communities can be disturbed by stone-quarrying and rock-climbing. Most known peregrine falcon nesting cliffs are closed to hikers and climbers during breeding season to protect this raptor, which has only recently recovered from near extinction. It is best, and safer, to enjoy the flora and fauna of cliffs by remaining at the base and using binoculars." READ MORE

Monkey Slugs

Mary Holland | Naturally Curious

"Some of our dullest-looking moths started their lives out as colorful, bizarrely-shaped caterpillars. In particular, there is a family of caterpillars (Limacodidae) known as 'slug caterpillars' which come in all kinds of unusual forms and colors. They can be naked or densely hairy, and they often have stinging hairs. The Hag Moth (Phobetron pithecium), found throughout eastern North America, is one such moth. Whereas the adult moth is a dull brown, the caterpillar stage is anything but dull. Known as the Monkey Slug, the caterpillar stage of this moth has three pairs of long “arms” and three additional pairs about half as long. Its appearance has been likened to a tarantula. (Many of our insectivorous birds winter in the tropics, where there are tarantulas (which the birds avoid), and therein lies the reason for the caterpillar to look like one). Although most photographs make Monkey Slugs look large, they are only about an inch in diameter. Adult moths bear a slight resemblance to bees and wasps. What is unusual about Monkey Slugs (as well as other slug caterpillars), besides their bizarre appearance, is the way in which they move. Monkey Slugs glide – instead of the typical prolegs (located behind six true legs) they have suckers (see bottom right inset). The fact that it glides is responsible for its being classified as a 'slug' caterpillar, for it moves much like a slug does. The Monkey Slug is one of the slug caterpillars that does not sting, so you can handle it safely should you find one. (Thanks to Kathy and Geoff Marchant for photo op.)" READ MORE

The week in wildlife — in pictures

Joanna Ruck | The Guardian

"The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a jellyfish bloom, a happy seal, and an endangered Amur leopard cub" VIEW MORE