Letter: Protect Our Water

To the Editor:

Have you heard about the proposed industrial logging project at our forested public drinking-water reservoir in North Adams? In the late summer there was quite the hubbub (rightfully) after the Conservation Commission recommended that herbicides not be sprayed ... next to Notch Reservoir. It seems ridiculous it was ever a plan supported by Mass Audubon. After nearly two years of secretive planning this was the first time most of us heard about this project.

Were you at the Conservation Commission meeting in September where Friends of Notch Forest packed the room, overflowing into hallways, lining the street in protest? Were you one of the 2,000-plus people locally, regionally and internationally who signed our Save Notch Forest petition?

North Adams deserves more than to be used as an experiment by Mass Audubon and its new industrial-logging partners, which seek to unnecessarily replace a mature diverse forest with a tree-seedling farm that cannot enrich the City, nor benefit its human and wildlife residents. We have a vision — not just to stop the logging project to protect our forest, beloved Bellows Pipe hiking trail, and our drinking water — that could financially benefit the City and our environment for generations to come.

Devin Raber
North Adams, Mass.

North Adams, Pittsfield Mark King Day With Calls for Activism

By Tammy Daniels & Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
04:01PM / Monday, January 19, 2026

Alÿcia Bacon, community engagement officer for the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, speaks at the MLK service held Price Memorial AME Church in Pittsfield. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Wendy Penner can be found pretty much everywhere: leading local initiatives to address climate change and sustainability, championing public health approaches for substance abuse, and motivating citizens to defend their rights and the rights of others. 

 

That's all when she's not working her day job in public health, or being co-president of Congregation Beth Israel, or chairing the Williamstown COOL Committee, or volunteering on a local board. 

 

"Wendy is deeply committed to the Northern Berkshire community and to the idea of think globally, act locally," said Gabrielle Glasier, master of ceremonies for Northern Berkshire Community Coalition's annual Day of Service. 

 

Her community recognized her efforts with the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Peacemaker Award, which is presented to individuals and organizations who have substantially contributed to the Northern Berkshires. The award has been presented by the MLK Committee for 30 years, several times a year at first and at the MLK Day of Service over the past 20 years. 

 

"This event is at heart a celebration of our national and local striving to live up to the ideals of Dr. King and his committed work for racial equality, economic justice, nonviolence and anti-militarism," said Penner. "There is so much I want to say about this community that I love, about how we show up for each other, how we demonstrate community care for those who are struggling, how we support and and celebrate the natural environment that we love and how we understand how important it is that every community member feels deserves to feel valued, seen and uplifted."

 

King's legacy is in peril "as I never could have imagined," she said, noting the accumulation of vast wealth at the top while the bottom 50 percent share only 2.5 percent the country's assets. Even in "safe" Massachusetts, there are people struggling with food and housing, others afraid to leave their homes. 

 

In response, the community has risen to organize and make themselves visible and vocal through groups such as Greylock Together, supporting mutual aid networks, calling representatives, writing cards and letters, and using their privilege to protect vulnerable community members.