BEAT Staying Connected Initiative Coordinator Mikael Cejtin, left, and Executive Director Jane Winn show off their locally-made stewardship awards, presented by Patricia Cramer, director of the Wildlife Connectivity Institute.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Environmental Action Team received a stewardship award for its work protecting and re-connecting wildlife habitats in the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage area.
The award was presented June at the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation.
The local environmental organization's habitat effort is part of a larger Staying Connected Initiative: a partnership of many conservation organizations that work together to maintain landscape connectivity across the Northern Appalachians in the Acadian Region of the United States and Canada.
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MassDEP Talks Pollution Plans for Pontoosuc Lake
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The state Department of Environmental Protection has some options for restore a polluted Pontoosuc Lake back to health.
These were reviewed last Wednesday at a public information session.
Holly Brown, an analyst with MassDEP's Watershed Planning Program, said the lake is showing signs of nutrient pollution and eutrophication — a condition which promotes algae blooms, fish kills and dead zones — and cited recent algae blooms that resulted in public health advisories.
Matt Ladewig, principal scientist with TRC Companies of Windsor, Conn., explained the two different avenues Pittsfield and Lanesborough can take to help restore Pontoosuc Lake.
The two potential avenues include determining the lakes capacity for pollution (Total Maximum Daily Load) and developing a Nine Element Wastershed-based plan.
"The TMDL process is more formal and allocates pollutant loads to contributing point and non-point services in a way that will allow the water body to meet water quality standards," said Ladewig.
A TMDL plan would identify the impairment, the causes and the pollutant load reductions. Following public comments, it would have to approved by the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency to be eligible for grants.
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