Williamstown to Celebrate MapleFest

08:54AM / Tuesday, March 09, 2010Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.— MapleFest, the town's annual maple syrup celebration, is set to take place this Saturday, March 13, in Hopkins Memorial Forest.

Visitors will get the chance to see the entire process maple syrup-making process, from maple tree tapping to a working sugarhouse with an old kettle boiler, to syrup tasting and pancake eating. The free event will take place, rain or shine, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vans will be available from Chapin Hall.

Maple syrup celebrations have been a part of the country’s calendar for generations. The "maple moon" month, as this time of year is called, brings people together to cook maple syrup.

Visitors also are welcome to visit the sugarhouse anytime during the sugaring season, which is from early March to mid-April.

Hopkins Memorial Forest is located at the intersection of Northwest Hill Road and Bulkley Street. The reserve, managed by the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies, spans more than 2,500 acres in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. The land was donated to the college by the family of Colonel Amos Lawrence Hopkins in the 1930s. Since then, the college has actively maintained the forest, which it uses for teaching and research.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Greylock Youth SummerFest

Come join in on the wealth building fun! August 3-8. Click for event details. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Local Authorities Responding to State's Action on Kratom

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
10:43AM / Tuesday, August 18, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health on Monday began a discussion about regulating the sale of kratom products in town.

The board's monthly meeting came four days after the governor's office in Boston announced that the commonwealth temporarily will designate kratom, also known by its chemical name and marketed with the term "7-OH" as a Schedule I drug, greatly restricting its sale in Massachusetts as of Aug. 28.

The board already was meeting virtually with the director of South County's Tri-Town Health Department on a different matter. Jim Wilusz stayed on the conference call to discuss the implications of Gov. Maura Healey's Thursday announcement on 7-OH, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has called potentially "The Next Wave of the Opioid Epidemic."

Wilusz said he already was working on draft regulations for Tri-Town based, in part, on an ordinance enacted by Northampton before Gov. Maura Healey's announcement. But in the wake of the announcement and the classification of kratom as a Schedule I drug, he might have to change the language of the proposed ordinance.

Healey's emergency order of Aug. 14 is intended to "give local boards of health and other municipal officials additional authority to take enforcement action against retailers selling kratom products," according to a news release announcing the move.

"I was actually hoping they were going to pass a statewide ban on this thing," Wilusz said. "This goes into effect Aug. 28, so effective the 28th, they can't have kratom in the entire state on their shelves with a one-year [period] to give not only boards of health but, possibly, the Legislature, time to enact regulation.

"I don't know if the intent is to work on a statewide Department of Public Health regulation, which would be ideal, where you would have uniformity across the entire state. It does authorize the boards of health to enact local regulations."

View Full Story