Hi Friend,
As the coldest season of the year, winter can often get the short end of the stick, and many of its wonderful attributes can be overlooked. However, for many naturalists, winter means more signs of wildlife, which allows for a fun and challenging hobby to commence.
For the first Pittsfield Green Drinks event of the new year, Richard Greene will talk about his experience with studying track and sign, as well as wildlife biology, through Keeping Track, Cybertracker, and Mass Audubon’s Field Naturalist Program. He will also present a slide show and narrative from his collection of wintertime track and sign photos, and even give us some tips on how to identify tracks and signs left behind by local wildlife!
Come join us next Tuesday, January 18th at 6PM, to experience one of the greatest enjoyments of the unsung season—wildlife tracking!
Also, because this event will be held via Zoom, you need to RSVP in order to attend. It only takes a second. Click here to register.
We hope to see you there!
With gratitude,
Jane, Rose, Jake, Noah, and Chelsey
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*REMINDER*
TRACK & SIGN PHOTO SUBMISSION
Don't forget to submit your track and sign photos by January 28th if you want them to be part of BEAT and Northeast Wildlife Trackers' evening of track/sign I.D.
- PLEASE have some sort of gauge in the photo so there is a sense of size. This could be a ruler (ideal), a pencil, your hand, or boot—something with a known length.
- Check that the picture is in focus; take several and pick the best.
- Perhaps the individual track does not have good detail; if so, take long view photo(s) of the trail as well.
- It can be helpful to have both closeup and long view photos.
- Time of day and temperature information is appreciated.
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Send to [email protected] with heading “Tracks”
- Submissions should be sent no later than January 28th.
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***We can't guarantee that all photos will be shown; it depends on the amount submitted, quality of photo, and discussion time. |
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Mass Audubon's 2021 Photo Contest Winners
Mass Audubon
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"Every year, Mass Audubon’s Picture This statewide photo contest encourages people of all ages to submit images that highlight people in nature, wildlife, plant life, and landscapes across Massachusetts." See More Photos.
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Are those plants really native to the ecotype you live in?
Thomas Christopher | The Berkshire Eagle
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"Did you know that the native red maple tree you bought from your local nursery may have originated with a clone collected in Florida? Or that the native meadow seed you planted likely was collected in the Midwest? So what does that matter? Over millennia, truly local plants have evolved to flourish in the local conditions, and to harmonize with the local wildlife, Sefra Alexandra explains. These locally evolved plants are what scientists describe as ecotypes. Sefra — an agroecological educator with a master’s degree from Cornell University and international experience as a plant collector [...] — points out that using local ecotypes is more likely to produce plants that bloom precisely when their local pollination partners need them." Read More.
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A lost eagle from Asia has been traveling around North America for more than a year
Deepa Shivram | NPR
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"...an Asian sea eagle reported in Massachusetts [...] has been thousands of miles from home for more than a year. [...] The large bird weighs as much as 20 pounds, with a wingspan of up to 8 feet. Steller's sea eagles are native to China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and eastern Russia, so this bird is at least 5,000 miles from home. But what's even wilder is that the same exact bird has been traveling across North America since at least August 2020." Read More.
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Climate Justice Through Divestment
Ray Levy Uyeda | Yes! Magazine
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"In recent years, a growing movement to achieve climate justice has connected the root cause of climate change not just with greenhouse gases but also with a more entrenched, insidious foe: capitalism. [...] Time is running out to curb emissions and restore balance to global ecosystems, which is why front-line land defenders and climate activists are going straight to the source of climate chaos: financial firms. The movement is called “divestment,” and it’s growing both inside and outside financial institutions’ walls. The idea is simple: Pull money, talent, and public approval away from banks and financial institutions that invest in fossil fuel extraction." Read More.
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How Burning Wood Pellets in Europe is Harming the U.S. South
Jake Dean | Slate
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"...COP26 failed to address biomass energy, which many European nations have relied on as a “renewable energy” source. At best, that terminology is a semantic stretch. At worst, it’s greenwashing a dirty fuel at the worst possible moment. [...] Biomass energy comes from organic material like waste crops and animal manure—but it’s mostly wood burned in the form of compressed particle pellets. It’s not super common in the U.S. [...] But the Build Back Better Act passed by the House of Representatives would support increasing its use. [...] Woody biomass accounts for more than half of the European Union’s renewable energy sources. And a lot of that wood is coming from the Southeastern U.S." See Photos & Read More.
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Channel your inner otter
Division of Fisheries and Wildlife | Mass.gov
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"River otters stay active in the cold weather and even seem to enjoy snow and ice. Brush up on your otter facts and get inspired to get outdoors this winter.The North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) is well known and loved for its playful and athletic antics on both water and land. [...] Otters can sometimes be seen sliding on their bellies down a muddy embankment and scrambling back to take another slide like children on a playground slide. Winter brings other opportunities for otters to slide or 'swim'." Read More.
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Climate change destroying homes across the Arctic
Georgina Rannard | BBC News
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"Cracked homes, buckled roads and ruptured pipelines are likely to become common in and near the Arctic as warming temperatures cause frozen ground to thaw, new findings say. [...] Scientists studying the Arctic say that 70% of infrastructure and 30-50% of critical infrastructure is at high risk of damage by 2050, with projected cost of tens of billions of dollars. The study published on Tuesday highlights again how climate change is expected to threaten life as we know it as well as the natural world." See Photos & Read More.
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Mining the Bottom of the Sea
Elizabeth Kolbert | The New Yorker
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"It’s rare that a tiny country like Nauru gets to determine the course of world events. But, for tangled reasons, this rare event is playing out right now. If Nauru has its way, enormous bulldozers could descend on the largest, still mostly untouched ecosystem in the world—the seafloor—sometime within the next few years. Hundreds of marine scientists have signed a statement warning that this would be an ecological disaster resulting in damage 'irreversible on multi-generational timescales.' Large swaths of the seabed are covered with potentially mineable—and potentially extremely valuable—metals, in the form of blackened lumps called polymetallic nodules. For decades, companies have been trying to figure out how to mine these nodules; so far, though, they’ve been able to do only exploratory work." Read More.
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2021 was the fifth-hottest year on record as emissions surge
Al Jazeera
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"The year 2021 was the world’s fifth hottest on record, while levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere hit new highs, European Union scientists have said. [...] As greenhouse gas emissions change the planet’s climate, the long-term warming trend has continued. Climate change exacerbated many of the extreme weather events sweeping the world in 2021, from floods in Europe, China and South Sudan, to wildfires in Siberia and the United States. [...] 'These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our ways, take decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society and work towards reducing net carbon emissions,' [CS3 Director Carlo] Buontempo warned." Watch Videos & Read More.
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Where Do Common Loons that Breed in New England Spend the Winter?
Mary Holland | Naturally Curious
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"In northern New England, Common Loons nest and raise their young on inland lakes and ponds. By late fall, when most of the lakes have started to freeze over, the majority of loons head for the East Coast although some do overwinter on open, inland, freshwater lakes. Loons that migrate spend the winter in their new, drabber plumage off the Northeast coast where they apparently have no problem adapting to salt water and the change of diet which that entails." Read More.
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~OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT BEAT~
Tommy's Compost is a local composting service that offers residential and commercial compost pick-up services year-round, and currently serving the Pittsfield, Hinsdale, Dalton, Windsor, Lenox, Cheshire and surrounding areas.
By signing up for Tommy's Compost not only will you reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to sustainability, but you will also support a local small business AND support BEAT! Because whenever you sign up for Tommy's Compost and use the code 1FORBEAT at checkout, BEAT receives $1.
Interested in using Tommy’s but located outside of their service area? When three people sign up from an out-of-area location in the Berkshires, Tommy’s is able to begin servicing that new area!
If you'd like to sign up for Tommy's Compost or learn more, you can check out their website or contact them through email.
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR
We list events from a variety of local and regional organizations and individuals.
Events with BEAT:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18th
Community Calendar:
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12th
THURSDAY, JANUARY 13th
SATURDAY, JANUARY 15th
SUNDAY, JANUARY 16th
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18th
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19th
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JOBS
We list jobs related to the environment from a variety of organizations.
***Are you a non-profit environmental organization looking for willing, capable, and unpaid summer interns?
The Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College provides funding to students to pursue unpaid environmental summer internships with non-profit organizations and governmental agencies, supervised research, and creative endeavors. Learn more about this summer program and how you can get involved here.
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Environmental Monitor
January 7, 2022
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:
Pioneer Valley Index:
Statewide Index:
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Public Notices
Public Notices listed here 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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Berkshire Environmental Action Team
20 Chapel St., Pittsfield, MA 01201
(413) 464-9402
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