Presentation on Benthic Macroinvertebrates to be Held at Williams College

12:07PM / Thursday, April 24, 2025Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Hoosic River Watershed Association, Williams College Center for Environmental Studies, and the Zilkha Center for the Environment will host a presentation titled "Turning Stones: a Presentation on Benthic Macroinvertebrates" with aquatic ecologist Declan McCabe on Tuesday, April 29, from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM in Griffin Hall Room 3 at Williams College.

The program is free and open to the public, and families with children are welcome.

During the presentation, Declan McCabe will use a slide show and live aquatic macroinvertebrates to discuss several topics, including:

The properties of water that support life.
The differences in the characteristics and inhabitants of flowing and standing water ecosystems.
Adaptations of organisms that live on the water's surface.
Non-toxic methods for reducing mosquito populations near homes.
Low-cost ways to study macroinvertebrates locally.
Simple actions to protect watersheds and improve water quality.

Registration for this free program is required and can be completed by clicking the provided link.

Declan McCabe is an aquatic ecologist and a professor of biology at Saint Michael’s College. His book, Turning Stones: Discovering the Life of Water (2024, Down East Books), examines the biodiversity found in rivers. Mr. McCabe has experience communicating biological concepts to students and has also worked with high school audiences. His writings are featured in "Northern Woodlands" and "Connecticut Woodlands" magazines, as well as "The Outside Story" natural history series.

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Mount Greylock School Committee Discusses Collaboration Project with North County Districts

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:34AM / Friday, December 19, 2025

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — News that the group looking at ways to increase cooperation among secondary schools in North County reached a milestone sparked yet another discussion about that group's objectives among members of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee.

At Thursday's meeting, Carolyn Greene reported that the Northern Berkshire Secondary Sustainability task force, where she represents the Lanesborough-Williamstown district, had completed a request for proposals in its search for a consulting firm to help with the process that the task force will turn over to a steering committee comprised of four representatives from four districts: North Berkshire School Union, North Adams Public Schools, Hoosac Valley Regional School District and Mount Greylock Regional School District.

Greene said the consultant will be asked to, "work on things like data collection and community outreach in all of the districts that are participating, coming up with maybe some options on how to share resources."

"That wraps up the work of this particular working group," she added. "It was clear that everyone [on the group] had the same goals in mind, which is how do we do education even better for our students, given the limitations that we all face.

"It was a good process."

One of Greene's colleagues on the Mount Greylock School Committee used her report as a chance to challenge that process.

"I strongly support collaboration, I think it's a terrific idea," Steven Miller said. "But I will admit I get terrified when I see words like 'regionalization' in documents like this. I would feel much better if that was not one of the items we were discussing at this stage — that we were talking more about shared resources.

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