Local Environmentalist Updates Guide to Berkshire Trails

 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Lauren R. Stevens has been traipsing through the Berkshire mountains for more than 40 years.

And he wants others to find the same joy has in exploring the trails that weave throughout the county.

"I want people to gain an appreciation of the beautiful place we live in," the retired Williams College professor said. "There are benefits to just walking — physical and psychological. It has a way refueling."

Stevens recently published "50 Hikes In The Berkshire Hills," an updated guide to some favorite hikes, walks and climbs throughout the county. The guide, published by W.W. Norton's Countryman Press, came out in July.

The book is split into three parts, one each for North County, Central County and South County, and it pinpoints some notable and accessible trails.

"If you live here, you maybe know a lot of these places but a lot of people don't really get out," said Stevens, walking along the Cascade Trail recently. "I hope it is a service that makes it easier for them to get out."

Stevens, who grew up in Philadelphia, gained an affinity at a young age for the outdoors.

"Philadelphia has this wonderful Fairmount Park system so I could just walk from my house to a ravine and I was in the woods," he said. "I spent a lot of time there growing up."

Stevens came to Williams as an English and later environmental studies instructor, and since then has made Berkshire County his home, residing in Williamstown. At the age of 78, he said he has spent more than 40 years here and has had time to explore.

"I would say from day one getting out here in this environment was part of my mode of being here," he said. "I do more of it now because I am not working full time."

The book covers more than 50 hikes and walks. Each trail logged in the book has a quick write up, color photos, maps, notable landmarks, distance, walking time and vertical gain.

Williamstown Fire Committee Sees FY27 Budget with Sizable Operational Increase

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:50AM / Tuesday, March 31, 2026

The Prudential Committee held its first meeting in the new station in late March with Treasurer Billie Jo Sawyer, left and committee members Lindsay Neathawk, David Moresi and Craig Pedercini.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee last week reviewed a draft annual fire district meeting warrant that includes an operational expenses budget up 9.4 percent from the figures approved at the May 2025 annual meeting.

 

And, with a new line item added to the district's operational budget the total increase is closer to 24 percent.

 

Last May, meeting members — the meeting is open to all registered voters in town — approved an FY26 spending plan that totaled $686,991.

 

On July 1, the first day of the fiscal year, a special district meeting voted to allocate $40,000 from the district's stabilization fund to the operating budget, effectively raising the baseline to $726,991, a 34 percent increase, year over year, from FY25 to FY26.

 

The July 1 meeting moved $20,000 of stabilization funds to the firefighter pay line and $20,000 to the maintenance and operation line — nearly doubling the former and raising the latter by 75 percent from FY25 to FY26.

 

Both those lines are up again in the planned FY27 budget, but more modestly: 2 percent for M&O (up from $123,000 to $125,500) and 27 percent for firefighter payroll ($110,000 to $139,900).

 

Most of the other line items net out to no significant change; some are up a little, some are down a little.