Berkshire Green Drinks: Stream Restoration on the Konkapot River

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Environmental Action Team welcomes the first Green Drinks speaker of 2026, Zach Adams of Trout Unlimited.

Adams will share about this summer's stream restoration project on the Konkapot River on Jan. 14.

This project both created habitat in the Konkapot River and stabilized the stream bank to prevent Hartsville-Mill River Road from washing out in the next 5 years. This project required 80+ trees with root wads, tons of boulders, and a lot of adaptability. Adams will share photos and stories about this fairly unique project in Massachusetts. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions after the presentation.

This free hybrid event will take place online via Zoom and in person at Dewey Hall, 91 Main Street, Sheffield. The in-person social gathering will begin around 5:30 PM; the presentation and Zoom meeting will start at 6:00 PM.

Zach Adams is a writer, photographer, avid outdoorsman, and lifelong conservationist. He holds a Bachelor's of Science from Juniata College and has worked and studied from the Chesapeake Bay to the Adirondacks. Adams has lived along the banks of the Housatonic River for his entire career, and is passionate about conservation in the Berkshires where he lives with his wife Evelyn and his German Shorthaired Pointer, Millie. He now works for Trout Unlimited, managing stream restoration projects in Berkshire County. You can find him chasing brook trout in the hills, walking behind his bird dog, or scratching his head over a rare bird identification.

Adams writes a sporting column for the Berkshire Eagle, has publications in multiple magazines, and is the author of the field guide Birds of New England.

Learn more and RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/Jan-2026-Green-Drinks. 

Berkshire Green Drinks is sponsored and organized by the Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT). For more information regarding Berkshire Green Drinks, contact Andrew Ferrara, andrew@thebeatnews.org, 

South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning. 

 

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

 

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76. 

 

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

 

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

 

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains. 

 

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.