WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Rural Lands (WRL) is launching TALKS on the HILL, a free monthly lecture series for the greater Berkshire community on a variety of environmental and land-use topics. 

 

These talks draw on the expertise of residents of Western Massachusetts, The Berkshires as well as neighboring Vermont and New York. WRL aims to provide a space for regional thinkers: writers, scientists, historians, creative producers, and others to elucidate on diverse subjects.

 

The topics of the talks are diverse, yet each speaker will invite the audience to consider issues, conundrums, initiatives, queries, and findings from a particular point of view and then open 'the floor' to questions and discussion. 

 

The first six months are scheduled and include a presentation by Williams students working with the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Historic Preservation Office on a project about the Mohican Nation in Williamstown, a ski-buff turned historian who has  researched about the lost ski areas of New England, a Williamstown farmer and chef originally of Vietnam, and his quest to create a sustainable, intensively-farmed flower and vegetable CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a hiking devotee and 20-year Appalachian Trail volunteer who takes us behind the scenes of managing such an iconic trail.

 

Premiering Thursday, Nov. 4, the first talk will be presented by Hank Art, Chair of the Lands Committee at WRL, Research Associate at the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College and Robert F. Rosenburg Professor of Biology & Environmental Studies, Emeritus, Williams College. Professor Art will be discussing the initiatives of the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership.

 

The Mohawk Trail Woodland Partnership was established to be a shared forest stewardship collaboration among the US Forest Service, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, 17 municipalities and a dozen public and non-governmental organizations in Western Massachusetts. This program, funded through grants from the U.S. Forest Service and the MA Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs, is now into its third cycle of project awards, one of which was given to Williamstown for planting climate adapted trees on the Town Common (cost for the trees only – planting is being done with local matching funds).

 

Talks on the Hill happen every first Thursday of the month from 7 – 8:15 pm. Visit www.rurullands.org for details and to register for a zoom link. A calendar of the upcoming 6 months of talks is available for download. 

 

Although the talks are currently held on zoom, they are intended eventually to be live in-person and recorded for streaming.