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Hi Team,
We hope you can join us next Thursday, November 9, at Big Elm Brewery in Sheffield or online via Zoom for our November Berkshire Green Drinks event! Tom Ryan, a forester with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, is joining us to talk about types of forest conservation and management strategies that are practiced as a form of climate mitigation. He'll touch on several areas within forestry, including an overview of the current state of our forested landscape, a summary of state forestry programs and the existing land use designations for DCR state properties, conservation options for private landowners, forest-climate adaptation and carbon management concepts, landscape-scale habitat restoration efforts, MA forest product consumption trends, biochar, and supporting local forest products and how this can help mitigate climate change. Click here to learn more and access the registration and RSVP links.
On an entirely different note: BEAT is in need of an industrial hand truck at our Environmental Leadership & Education Center in Pittsfield. If you happen to have one that you're interested in donating, we would be happy to take it off your hands and put it to use! Let us know — email team@thebeatnews.org.
That's it for now. Thank you for all you do to protect the environment!
Jane, Rose, Chelsey, John, Lucas, Andrew, and Brittany
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The landscape at a former quarry in Lee is about to change. But questions remain about whether it will safely contain PCBs
Greg Sukiennik | The Berkshire Eagle
| "It’s a 75-acre site that could be mistaken for many Berkshire post-industrial landscapes — except this one is the future home of the landfill where PCB-contaminated sediment from the Housatonic River will be deposited and capped. This parcel — part meadow, part utility infrastructure, part industrial site, wedged between a gravel pit, an electric substation, the former Town of Lee landfill and October Mountain State Forest — has been the focus of scientific study and contentious debate. [...] 'Seventy percent of it is vegetated. It is not a big sandpit,' Citizen Coordinating Council member Clare Lahey of Lee said of the site at that panel’s September meeting. 'This is a beautiful diversified area with tons of wildlife.' But there’s also a big pile of disused concrete, perhaps once a highway bridge or a foundation, now reduced to sizable chunks. Overhead are Eversource’s high- and medium-voltage lines, connecting to the nearby substation on Woodland Road. Just to the west, Eurovia Atlantic Coast LLC is still mining gravel. [...] But [EPA Rest of River project leader Dean] Tagliaferro, who has been on the GE/Rest of River cleanup for years, remains confident this is the right place for a landfill, and that it will protect human health and the environment. He notes that the landfill site has plenty of open space around it; that there are no homes in its immediate vicinity; that it’s beyond the river’s 100- and 500-year flood plains; and that it’s designed to protect against the possibility of PCBs leaking out and returning to the river. The five layers of containment proposed for the landfill — a parfait of HDPE plastic, perforated pipes to divert leachate for treatment, geocomposite liners and clay — are far more than what’s required for the facility, he said. [...] Tagliaferro’s bottom line is getting the PCBs out of the river and flood plains, and reducing the risk to human health by reducing exposure through the chemical vaporizing at high temperatures, or through consumption of tainted fish and waterfowl. To him, that’s a more significant risk than a capped landfill with multiple liners keeping low-level contamination from seeping back into the ground. '[PCBs are] sitting in the floodplain right now. People walk in the floodplain,' he said. 'To have adverse health effects from PCBs at these levels [at the landfill] you’d have to have prolonged exposure over many, many years.' [...] Tagliaferro acknowledged that the path of groundwater follows a slope at its northeastern edge, back toward the Housatonic. But he also gave reasons why people should not be concerned that PCBs will leach back into the ecosystem. 'Reason No. 1: [They’re] very low level PCBs. PCBs like to absorb to the soil. They don't like to dissociate into groundwater,' he said. 'Reason two: five liners. Reason three: It's already in the water, in the river; that's why we're cleaning it up.'" READ MORE |  |
US students file complaints against six universities over fossil fuel investments
Dharna Noor | The Guardian
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"Students at six universities filed legal complaints on Monday accusing their colleges of breaking a little-known law by investing in planet-heating fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned. Campus organizers from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Tufts University, Pomona College, Washington University in St Louis and Pennsylvania State University wrote to the attorneys general of their respective states to ask officials to scrutinize their universities’ investments. Each filing elicited signatures of support from dozens of faculty and staff members, alumni and local, national and international climate-focused groups. The students argue that by investing in coal, oil and gas, the schools are violating their obligations as non-profit organizations to prioritize the public interest. 'Fossil fuel companies have long engaged in a well-documented campaign to undermine climate science and distort public debate about how to deal with the climate crisis – including through efforts targeting Penn scientists and researchers,' University of Pennsylvania students wrote in their filing. 'The industry’s spread of scientific misinformation undermines the work of Penn faculty and students who are researching and designing solutions for a sustainable future.'
The filings estimate that each of the schools has tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars invested in fossil fuels. 'If universities say, "We’re climate leaders, we stand for justice," but then on the other hand financially contribute to the climate crisis, we just see that as unacceptable,' said Moli Ma, an undergraduate student at Tufts, who helped lead the complaint against her university. 'There’s an incongruence there. It doesn’t match up.'" READ MORE
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Acorn Weevils Exiting Acorns
Mary Holland | Naturally Curious
| "If you see an acorn on the ground with a perfectly round tiny hole in it, chances are if you open it you will find very little inside. The hole was drilled by an Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp.) larva. During the summer female weevils bore tiny holes in immature acorns and lay eggs. An egg hatches into a white larva which feeds inside the nut until autumn, when acorns fall to the ground. The larva then chews a round 1/8-inch hole (see insert photo) and emerges, after which it tunnels into the soil where it stays for one to two years before emerging as an adult. The cycle then repeats itself." READ MORE |
How New York City Turned the World's Biggest Garbage Dump Into a Park
Leslie Kaufman | Bloomberg
| "Staten Island’s Freshkills was once the world’s largest dump. In 2001, New York City shut it down and began the process of turning it into a park. A soccer field opened in 2013 and a bikeway in 2015. North Park, the first section allowing public access into the interior of the former landfill, opened last weekend. When NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses selected Freshkills as a landfill site after World War II, it was a wetland. The plan was to build housing on top of it after three years. But New York was growing fast, and all the new trash needed to go somewhere. The site accepted as many as 29,000 tons of garbage daily, which consumed more acreage and created a mighty stink. After many lawsuits, the city began its transformation. There are more than 2,600 municipal solid waste landfills in the US. Federal law requires maintenance of them even after they close, so they don’t pollute. If the methane released from dumps isn’t purified, it rises into the atmosphere, where it’s a particularly potent greenhouse gas. [...] More than 500 former US dumps have been turned into energy projects that transform landfill gas into fuel. Far beneath the 2,200 acres of Freshkills’ grass and soil, a gas collection system vacuums out the landfill gas and sends it to a purification plant, where it undergoes methane removal. The city sells 1.5 million cubic feet of this treated biogas to the local utility, which distributes it to Staten Island homes for cooking and heating. (The average American household uses 70,000 cubic feet of natural gas annually.)" READ MORE |  |
Fish and Wildlife Service Proposed Sprawling Conservation Area in Everglades Watershed
Amy Green | Inside Climate News
| "A new federal proposal calls for creating a conservation area that would span 12 counties in Florida, from the Everglades’ headwaters in the center of the state to sawgrass prairies further south, preserving a region that is home to imperiled species like the Florida panther, the official state animal. The Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area would encompass freshwater marshes, pine flatwoods and agricultural pastures, significantly extending protected lands within a watershed that spans much of the peninsula. Among the areas previously designated in the Everglades, the country’s largest subtropical wilderness, are the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park, which in 1947 became the first preserve to safeguard this region’s natural resources. [...] The conservation area would enlarge the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a network of some 18 million acres set aside in the state as connected spaces where animals like panthers and bears can roam. And it would support the $21 billion-plus restoration of the Everglades, a watershed that supplies the drinking water of some 9 million Floridians." READ MORE | |
Bur Oaks may help Chicago-area scientists better understand forests and climate change
Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco | WBEZ Chicago
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"If you wanted to point to a tree that can handle climate change, you might start with the bur oak. When the Earth cooled millions of years ago and tropical species started to die off, the oaks began diversifying and moving southward. New species emerged and spread across North America, down into Mexico, and in time diversified further — giving rise to the nearly 300 oak species in North America. A warming planet will reshape the range where oaks will and can grow. As the giant trees lurch northward, a multi-state investigation into the future of oak trees and American forests is underway at the Morton Arboretum in west suburban Lisle. 'This study can give us a good idea of how the most foundational species of our forests are going to evolve as conditions change. And with the evolution of the oaks with the migration of the oaks, those will shape the composition of the entire forest in our region,' said Andrew Hipp, a senior scientist at Morton Arboretum." READ MORE | |
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WILDLIFE TRACKING HIKE WITH JIM PELLETIER AND DAVID ELLIS
Saturday, November 4th from 9 AM to 3 PM
at October Mountain State Forest, Lee, MA
BERKSHIRE GREEN DRINKS: "FOREST CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR CLIMATE MITIGATION" WITH TOM RYAN
Thursday, November 9th from 5 PM to 7 PM
at Big Elm Brewery, Sheffield, MA & Online
TREE WALKS WITH BEAT AND TOURISTS
Sunday, November 12th from 12 PM to 2 PM
at TOURISTS, North Adams, MA
BERKSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY CONFERENCE
Saturday, November 18th from 9 AM to 4 PM
at Berkshire School, Sheffield, MA
WILDLIFE TRACKING HIKE WITH JIM PELLETIER AND RICHARD GREENE (TWO SESSIONS)
Saturday, November 25th from 9 AM to Noon & 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM
at Beartown State Forest
BEAT'S 20TH-ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION AND OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, December 2nd from 1 PM to 3 PM
at BEAT's Environmental Leadership & Education Center, Pittsfield, MA
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SAVE THE DATE:
The 7th Annual Berkshire Natural History Conference is taking place on Saturday, November 18, at The Berkshire School in Sheffield. There will be presentations — one of which will be given by our very own Executive Director, Jane Winn — exhibitor tables of organizations and individuals, a natural history quiz, a book sale, and more! The presentation schedule will be available soon.
Click here to purchase tickets and get more info.
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR
We list events from a variety of local and regional organizations and individuals.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Dam Busters 101: Introduction to Dam Removal (Mass Rivers Alliance) — Online
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2
Community Listening Sessions: Hoosic River in North Adams (Hoosic River Revival) — North Adams
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3
Volunteer with BEAT: Invasive Hardy Kiwi Plant Removal — Pittsfield
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Meditation on Maples (HLT) — Ashfield
Fall Clean-up Volunteer Day (WRL) — Williamstown
Wildlife Tracking Hike with Jim Pelletier and David Ellis (BEAT) — Lee
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Creating Landscapes for Bird Biodiversity (Grow Native) — Online
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
The Mental Health Benefits of Nature (BNRC) — Online
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Berkshire Green Drinks: "Forest Conservation and Management Strategies for Climate Mitigation" with DCR Forester Tom Ryan (BEAT) — Sheffield & Online
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Volunteer with BEAT: Invasive Hardy Kiwi Plant Removal — Pittsfield
“Massachusetts Community Climate Bank” Log Lunch talk with Senator Paul Mark, representing Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin & Hampshire Counties (Williams College) — Williamstown
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11
Making Paper from Invasive Plants (WRL) — Williamstown
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Fall Community Walk at Canoe Meadows (Mass Audubon, Berkshire Family Hikes, City of Pittsfield) — Pittsfield
Tree Walks with BEAT at TOURISTS — North Adams
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13
Lighting Your Path to Energy Incentives and Efficiency (BRPC) — Pittsfield
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14
41st Annual Meeting Green Energy Consumers Alliance — Boston
See Calendar for More
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Environmental Monitor
October 23, 2023
The Environmental Monitor provides information on projects under review by the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office, recent MEPA decisions of the Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs, and public notices from environmental agencies.
Berkshire Index:
• Cheshire – Notice of Application for a 401 Water Quality Certificate – (click on the link, then at the top, click on attachment) – Reconstruction of bridge over Dry Brook with a new wider bridge, abutments, retaining walls, guardrails, and a roadway typical section consisting of two travel lanes and shoulders – comments due 10/31/23
CT River Valley Index:
• Charlemont – Notice of Application for a 401 Water Quality Certificate – (click on the link, then at the top, click on attachment) – Replacement of a structurally deficient bridge with a new bridge on similar alignment and same functional equivalent. There will also be some minor roadway approach reconstruction. – Comments due 11/12/23
• Westfield – Westfield Target Supply Chain Facility – NPC Cert – Does not require EIR – Submitted 10/10/23
• Springfield – Reconstruction of Sumner Avenue at Dickinson Street and Belmont Avenue (The “X”) – FEIR Cert – Submitted 10/16/23
• Rowe – Notice of Application for a 401 Water Quality Certificate - (click on the link, then at the top, click on attachment) – Replacement of superstructure and abutment repair of a bridge on Cyrus Stage Road over Potter Brook – comments due 10/31/23
Statewide Index:
Nothing new
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Public Notices
There is currently an opportunity for people to comment on the EPA’s draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the General Electric Company’s (GE’s) properties in Pittsfield. This permit covers outfalls from GE’s properties into Unkamet Brook and the Housatonic River in Pittsfield.
Here is a link to the proposed permit.
Permit # MA0003891
Comment period: 9/19/2023-11/20/2023
A public notice of a draft NPDES permit. The public comment period is September 19, 2023 – November 20, 2023.
A public meeting will be held November 8, 2023 at 6:00 – Virtual meeting information will be provided here once available.
A public hearing will be held November 8, 2023 at 7:00 – Virtual meeting information will be provided here once available.
Program/Statute: Clean Water Act (CWA)
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Public Notices listed on BEAT's website are from a variety of sources, from town conservation commissions and select boards to state and federal agencies. These listings are for Berkshire, Hampshire, Hampden, and Franklin counties. Listings are only posted if they are environmental in nature. You can find all public notices for Massachusetts here.
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