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By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Looking up in awe at the large maple, touching the bark on its trunk and remarking on how sturdy the tree seems, 7-year-old Xavi Veatch was among those saddened to be saying good-bye to the original Merry Maple.“I just have a lot of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A mother black bear and her three cubs roaming through neighborhoods south of the University of Massachusetts campus have made themselves a constant presence for the past several weeks.The bears’ foray into a Blue Hills Road backyard in late...

By DAN CROWLEY

WILLIAMSBURG — A Pennsylvania-based solar array developer has agreed to pay approximately $1.14 million to settle allegations that it violated federal stormwater requirements, damaging protected wetlands, and polluted the West Branch of the Mill River...

By ABBEY DWIGHT

AMHERST — At 4-8 inches long, box turtles aren’t easy to spot, yet Julie Miller and her son, August, found two such turtles earlier this month during hikes in the Plum Brook Conservation Area. Then last week, August spotted a tiny turtle hatchling...

By DENISE LAVOIE

BOSTON — After the U.S. Supreme Court and the highest court in Massachusetts found that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juveniles, the state began holding parole hearings for 63 people who had...

By Rebecca Mullen

AMHERST — As a member of Hampshire Mosque in Amherst, Naz Mohamed often looks for ways to educate people of other faiths on the basics of her religion.That’s why she joined some 50 others from four different faiths last week to discuss end-of-life...

By Lindsay Wise

WASHINGTON — One in three people enrolled in a government-subsidized phone program might not qualify for the service, with thousands of accounts belonging to either fake or dead people, according to a government audit released Thursday.The oversight...

By JACK SUNTRUP

NORTHAMPTON — Sonia Wilk was polite but frazzled. She hadn’t slept well in days. On Wednesday afternoon, she walked her bike down Conz Street, gripping a weathered stack of leaflets.She rolled her bicycle into the Fairfield Inn & Suites parking lot,...

By JACK SUNTRUP

The gypsy moth caterpillar’s on-again, off-again reign of destruction over Massachusetts forests starts in 1868 or 1869 in Medford.Leopold Trouvelot was an amateur entomologist who, in 1852, left France as Napoleon III was fastening his grip on power....

By NYSSA KRUSE

NORTHAMPTON — Even as planning for a permanent parklet in Crackerbarrel Alley has been prolonged due to noise concerns, a new miniature park opened Wednesday afternoon around the corner.Em and Fitzpatrick Withenbury entered into a partnership with the...

By DERRICK PERKINS

NORTHAMPTON — “Champ” the squirrel didn’t go down without a fight.Estimated at several weeks old, Champ was found Sunday by a friend of Jordana Starr, 32, who co-owns Beerology on Pleasant Street with her husband. The critter was in the mouth of the...

“Give the gift of music” a popular ad campaign in the early 1980s suggested, but in the Valley, especially during this holiday season, music does its own giving, with local bands teaming up to raise money for those in need.Each year around this time...

THIS CAUGHT MY EYE ... So. It’s winter. A time of howling winds and falling snow (and let’s face it, ice, sleet and freezing rain, because we ARE in New England). Yay? If you’re a winter-weather sissy like me, it’s a perfect time to head indoors to...

Winter means whiskey. I’ve tried enough times to put my finger on exactly why — because the smokiness, char from wood barreling somehow still warms you up, or that it’s best served barely if at all chilled — to know I’ll always find another reason,...

Photos and text by Sarah Crosby

Some 50 tiny homes filled the ballroom at Eastworks Saturday afternoon — edible homes, that is, made of gingerbread — as several hundred people, working to holiday tunes, gathered at the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity Annual Gingerbread Build...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST – A fox suffering from an illness that has caused it to lose much of its fur, and which may pose dangers to other wildlife, is continuing to roam neighborhoods in North Amherst. But Carol Hepburn, the town’s animal welfare officer, said the...