Search Results

Keyword search: Environment

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — An advisory committee is pulling out all the stops with 35 events to get people out and about to celebrate this year’s WinterFest.Now in its 10th year, the Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee is adding nine days of in-person events to...

By EMILY THURLOW

SOUTHAMPTON — A few Southampton landowners are asserting that they are due “just compensation” from the federal government, claiming that their land has been seized for the Greenway rail trail project currently in the design phase.As part of a...

By CHRIS LARABEE

WHATELY — As the town examines land around Exit 35 on Interstate 91, it is partnering with a local sustainable design school to take inventory of the environmental resources available.Members of Whately’s new Climate Resilience Planning Committee will...

By JOSHUA ROSE

’Tis the season of mistletoe, sort of. Mistletoe is evergreen, meaning it’s present year-round. However, winter is the season when we think about mistletoe most often.In the southeastern U.S., where I am writing this piece, mistletoe is hidden among...

By JULIAN MENDOZA

WHATELY — While winter’s warmest days remind us that our climate’s future could be bleak, the future generation reminds us that it may not have to be.Stephanie Apanell’s fourth grade class at Whately Elementary School joined forces with Amherst’s...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — Sleepless nights, panic attacks and weight loss are among symptoms Ronald Karakula claims he has been suffering over the past 2½ years as he worries about being injured or killed by a large pine tree that looms over his Damon Road home...

By BILL DANIELSON

For the past couple weeks I have found myself grumbling during my mornings at the kitchen window.For some reason my yard has become popular with a flock of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) and I am not at all pleased. The house sparrow is an...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — An energy firm is seeking a special permit to construct a 250-kilowatt solar array over the existing capped and closed landfill within the wastewater treatment plant property.The city’s Planning Board will hold its first public hearing...

By EMILY THURLOW

BOSTON — When 15-year-old Ollie Perrault found herself on the basketball court at the TD Garden, she seized an opportunity she’d never thought she’d have, and she took her shot.And though the Easthampton climate activist wasn’t trying to score any...

By JACOB NELSON

WORTHINGTON — “Agriculture is going to have to look different,” says Lincoln Fishman of Sawyer Farm in Worthington, given the climate crisis. “And I’m just not interested in farming the old way.”Well-read and well-spoken, Fishman has a keen ability to...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — A several-month experiment aimed at reducing the growth of algae blooms at Nashawannuck Pond appears to be working and will be used again next year, according to officials with the pond’s steering committee.Since April, nearly 100 onion...

By EMILY THURLOW

SOUTHAMPTON — A 3.5-mile railroad corridor that has been inactive for more than 30 years is one step closer to seeing some movement along its rails. The town has secured a $300,000 MassTrails grant that enables it to begin the design, engineering and...

By BILL DANIELSON

Today’s column will discuss two separate events that illustrate the powerful ability of birds to bring joy to the lives of humans. The first event took place at my school last week, while the second happened in my brother-in-law’s front yard. Both...

By EMILY THURLOW

SOUTHAMPTON — Fish will soon be able to swim through a portion of the Manhan River in Southampton that’s been blocked by a dam for nearly 300 years.Throughout last week, workers from Witch Enterprises of Agawam cut portions of the Lyman Mill Pond Dam...

By EMILY THURLOW

SOUTHAMPTON — When Ted Hendrick wanders around the woods along Cold Spring Road, he’s reminded of a “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” The song, released by singer Burl Ives in the 1940s, speaks of the “buzzin’ of the bees in the cigarette trees,” which...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — Lakes and ponds around the world are experiencing an increased occurrence of algae blooms as a result of warmer temperatures.This has had a particularly significant impact on water bodies that are shallow, stagnant and rich in nutrients...

By FRAN RYAN

EASTHAMPTON — As the world tries to combat global climate change and find workable clean alternatives to energy production, a small Easthampton company says it has a patented new way of creating electricity, one that could revolutionize how power is...

By JACQUELYN VOGHEL

EASTHAMPTON — Once a controversial project in Easthampton beset by delays and unanticipated expenses, the city’s fish ladder, which allows fish to pass through the dam on the Manhan River off Northampton Street, quietly entered its seventh season in...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

WILLIAMSBURG — Attorney General Maura Healey filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Pennsylvania developer alleging “irreparable harm” caused by polluting of the West Branch Mill River and damage to more than two acres of protected wetlands.The lawsuit...

By VALERIE REISS

When Cat Thomson and Steve McDonough moved onto their ¾-acre lot in Leeds, the landscaping consisted of dirt, dirt, and more dirt.“It was a blank slate,” said Thomson, a freelance writer and editor. They built their house on developed land that was...