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Protect a critical northeast forest corridor: save Vermont’s Telephone Gap from logging plan

  • March 3, 2023

The Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont is under threat of logging of nearly 12,000 acres. Add your comments to tell the U.S. Forest Service to let the forest do its work without the interference of “timber harvesting.”

From Zack Porter of Standing Trees: Telephone Gap On the Chopping Block

On Friday, January 27th, the US Forest Service announced its Proposed Action for the Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project in the Green Mountain National Forest, initiating a 45-day public comment period that will extend through Monday, March 13th. This comment period is the first formal opportunity for the public to weigh in on the project after a year of delays. Please use our fact sheet for help with comment writing.

Farm Bill Action!

  • March 3, 2023

Support Agriculture as part of the solution to the climate crisis, Support Racial Justice, Support Local Food and Organic Farms

From NOFAMass

Please use this form (right now!) asking your congressional Representative and Senator to support a packet of bills endorsed by NOFA which have been proposed for the 2023 Farm Bill. Encourage your Congressional delegation to cosponsor these “marker” bills (details below from the action page). Increasing the number of cosponsors builds support for these bills and will make the provisions more likely to end up in the Farm Bill!

You have an opportunity to help create more biodiverse, equitable, and regenerative farms, increase soil health, reduce fossil fuels and pesticides in farming practices, and promote a community-based food system that is more resilient to climate change grounded in a long-term vision to transform the unsustainable and consolidated agricultural industry that is susceptible to systemic supply shocks, while extracting wealth from rural communities by asking your congressional Representative and Senator to support this packet of bills that have been proposed for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Increasing the number of cosponsors builds support for these bills and will make the provisions more likely to end up in the Farm Bill.

You can help, and it takes only moments – please use this form to encourage your Congressional delegation to cosponsor the below bills.

This form can be used by everyone in the US – it will send a letter to your member of congress.

If you are a farmer, please do indicate your farm name/location.

We are asking congress to support the inclusion of these bills in the 2023 Farm Bill:

Agriculture Resilience Act

Establishes goal for agriculture to reach net zero by 2040, while investing in agricultural research, soil health, transition to pasture-based livestock, ensuring farmland preservation and viability, on-farm renewable energy, and reducing food waste.

Justice for Black Farmers Act

Enacts policies to end discrimination within the USDA, protect remaining Black farmers   from losing their land, provide land grants to create a new generation of Black farmers.

Strengthening Local Processing Act
A comprehensive plan to increase slaughter options for local livestock and poultry producers, assist smaller facilities as they adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, and help consumers access locally-raised meat and poultry. Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act

Places a moratorium on certain acquisitions between large agricultural and retail-related businesses and establishes a commission to study and make recommendations to address concentration in the U.S. food and agricultural economy.

Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP)

Increase LAMP funding, reduce matching requirements to broaden producer participation, and expand opportunities for family-scale fisheries through a systems approach that promotes food sovereignty.

Rally & Hearing in Greenfield about Northfield Solar Project

  • November 21, 2022

NORTHFIELD 76 ACRE PRIME FARMLAND SOLAR SPECIAL PERMIT APPEAL 

Rally at 8:30 am, Hearing at 9:00 on Monday, November 28, 2022, in Greenfield at the Franklin County Court House, 425 Main St.

The court will hear arguments about a special permit for solar arrays in Northfield on Pine Meadow Road. The Northfield Planning Board granted the permit for three arrays on 76 acres. Here is an article from the Greenfield Recorder about the scope of the project.

The rally calls attention to the loss of farmland for the sake of solar development, as well as ratepayer funding for “dual use” solar. This project is right near the Connecticut River in the “Northfield Farms” area, considered some of the richest farmland in the world. It has been continuously used for farming for thousands of years. This proposal is being funded by the MA solar SMART program.

Please attend, bring signs, spread the word.

Rally to Stop Eversource’s Clearcutting of 370 Acres of Mature Forest

  • October 8, 2022

Our Revolution MA (ORMA) and others will rally on Tuesday October 18, 2022 from 4 to 6 PM at the Eversource facility in Hadley.  55 Russell St. (Rt. 9), Hadley, MA (Park in Hampton Inn Village Shops west of Eversource.) Rain Date: Wednesday, October 19, 4 to 6pm.

When Eversource originally installed a 29-mile-long electric line (running through 11 towns in the western Mass Connecticut River Valley), they were permitted to cut a 100-foot swath of mature trees. Now Eversource wants to double the width of the corridor to 200 feet by clearcutting an additional 370 acres of forest! They are also demanding the state waive the required environmental impact review!

Weighing the worth of these trees for the public good: Eversource’s plan will mean cities and towns must spend money to mitigate the costs of (1) a significant increase in stormwater runoff and flooding, (2) lose annual carbon capture, (3) incur damage to local habitats, including those of endangered species, and (4) lose tourism income from New England foliage! These losses will affect many western Mass towns, including: Northfield, Erving, Wendell, Montague, Leverett, Shutesbury, Pelham, Belchertown, Amherst, Granby, and Ludlow.

The campaign to stop Eversource has sent thousands of letters and submitted hundreds of comments demanding that the Mass. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) reject Eversource’s request for a waiver of the required environmental impact report. And in response …. We have heard NOTHING!

The rally calls for Eversource end its opposition to a  full environmental impact report, as is required by the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), and insists that the Mass. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), do its job! 

Protect MA forests in DCR comment period

  • September 17, 2022

The comment period for the 10-year review of Mass. state land designations ends September 28, 2022.

Click here to access a sign-on letter with this simple message, “We, the undersigned, call for state-owned lands administered by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, including all woodlands, reserves, watersheds, and undeveloped parklands, to be designated and permanently protected as Carbon and Biodiversity Reserves.” If there are specific DCR lands that you know and love, you can add comments to this online letter.

And view the video Calling for Carbon and Biodiversity Reserves on Our State Lands: Serving the Public Interest (9/6/22) with Michael Kellett, Executive Director of RESTORE: The North Woods, climate scientist Dr. Bill Moomaw, and biologist Bill Stubblefield.

For more information, visit Save Massachusetts Forests and read on…

To write your own letter, comments may be submitted online at www.mass.gov/dcr/public-comment. The public can say directly to DCR the same things that were said during the hearing for the forest protection bills– H912 and H1002: all DCR land, including the watersheds, should become either “parks” or “reserves,” where land management is similar to our National Parks.

The current DCR plan, written in 2012,  is here: https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/qq/management-guidelines.pdf

The full sign-on message: “We, the undersigned, call for state-owned lands administered by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, including all woodlands, reserves, watersheds, and undeveloped parklands, to be designated and permanently protected as Carbon and Biodiversity Reserves. These Reserves would protect intact ecosystems, which are influenced primarily by natural processes, with only minimal human interference. Limited management activities would be allowed if proven to be necessary to protect public safety, endangered species, or the environment.”

In the video, Calling for Carbon and Biodiversity Reserves on Our State Lands, Michael Kellett, Bill Moomaw and Bill Stubblefield provided background to help the public better understand the issues and how to frame comments to the DCR during this ten-year review of its landscape designations.

Carbon & Biodiversity Reserves on Our State Lands: Serving the Public Interest

  • August 30, 2022

Landscape designations re-imagined to capture carbon and preserve biodiversity

Register HERE for this online event to learn the issues and how to frame comments to the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation during the comment period that ends September 28, 2022.

This backgrounder comes from experts in their fields:

  • Michael Kellett, Executive Director of RESTORE: The North Woods,
  • Climate scientist Dr. Bill Moomaw,
  • Biologist Bill Stubblefield.

There will be time for Q & A after the presentations.

Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpf-iprzsiHtdF_gXhWKNvJjklvQupZOMb . If you register, you will get a recording sent to you when it is available. 

DCR’s listening sessions allow the public to weigh in on the first 10-year review of the Landscape Designations and Management Guidelines developed in 2012.

The current DCR plan  is here: (https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/qq/management-guidelines.pdf ).
The public can now say the same things that were said to the legislature during the hearings for the forest protection bills  (H.912 and H.1002). Now the comments can go directly to DCR.  And we are saying the same things that we said when working on the bills: all DCR land, including the watersheds, become either “parks” or “reserves” where land management is similar to our National Parks. These measures would protect intact ecosystems from logging and most other active management — a level of protection that now exists for only 1% of the state’s land base..

To take action: Click HERE to sign a petition asking the DCR to create more permanent, protected reserves.

Here is the text of the petition:

 We, the undersigned, call for state-owned lands administered by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, including all woodlands, reserves, watersheds, and undeveloped parklands, to be designated and permanently protected as Carbon and Biodiversity Reserves.

These Reserves would protect intact ecosystems, which are influenced primarily by natural processes, with only minimal human interference. Limited management activities would be allowed if proven to be necessary to protect public safety, endangered species, or the environment.

cover image: DCR report Landscape Designations for DCR Parks & Forests:
Selection Criteria and Management Guidelines

Eversource proposes massive tree cutting along transmission power lines!

  • August 21, 2022

Eversource wants to cut all trees within 100 feet of transmission power  lines running from the Northfield Substation, through the towns of Erving, Wendell, Montague, Leverett, Shutesbury, Pelham, Belchertown, Amherst and Granby, to the Ludlow Substation in Ludlow, crossing two Environmental Justice communities: Wendell and Amherst.

Eversource has filed with MEPA (Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office) in order to move forward with its plan to cut over 370 acres of trees along the transmission power line corridor.

Take action by sending a comment to MEPA!  Go HERE for an action guide which will give you all the info you need. Please share with family and friends. 

The original MEPA comment deadline was set for Monday August 22nd. We have heard that an extension to that deadline is being negotiated. Watch for updates!

Check out this video of a meeting with Eversource called by Senator Jo Comerford

Tell DCR to protect state lands

  • August 21, 2022

DCR Landscape Designations and Management Guidelines 10-Year Review

The Department of Conservation and Recreation is holding a series of public meetings from late August to mid-September to discuss their review of the 2012 DCR Landscape Designations and Management Guidelines. These meetings offer the public a chance to provide feedback on the review, comment on evolving climate concerns, and discuss designations for properties acquired since 2012.

There will be 5 opportunities for the public to participate in live meetings, presenting the same material in each, and a field walk.

  • In-person sessions:
    • Thursday, September 8th 6:30pm-8:30pm MassWildlife Field Headquarters, 1 Rabbit Hill Road, Westborough, MA 01581
    • Tuesday, September 13th 6:30pm-8:30pm Pittsfield Athenaeum, One Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01201

DCR encourages the public to share additional feedback, with a deadline for receipt of comments by September 28th, 2022. Comments may be submitted online at www.mass.gov/dcr/public-comment. Please note that the content of comments you submit to DCR, along with your name, town, and zip code, will be posted on DCR’s website. Additional contact information required when commenting, notably email address, will only be used for outreach on future updates on the subject project or property.