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Water issues spark closing of water tap at summit of Mount Greylock The Berkshire Eagle | October 6, 2022 https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/northern_berkshires/mount-greyock-water-issues-close-summit-tap/article_77d9f1da-45ad-11ed-89be-3b760e086515.html A water tap at the summit of Mount Greylock frequently used by hikers to refill water bottles has been ruled off limits due to water quality issues. According to officials with the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation, hikers will no longer be able to refill water bottles at the summit of Mount Greylock. Potable water is available at the Mount Greylock State Reservation campground and visitor center, and bottled water is available for sale at Bascom Lodge, located at the summit of Mount Greylock. Hikers are advised to bring extra water for their hikes on the mountain and to fill their water bottles at the visitors center if necessary. Bascom Lodge will close for the season on Oct. 23. The road to the summit will close, and amenities and other services at the summit will conclude at the end of the season on Oct. 30. To...

Hikers advised to bring extra water climbing Mt. Greylock due to water quality issue Amy Phillips | WWLP | October 6, 2022 https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/berkshire-county/hikers-advised-to-bring-extra-water-climbing-mt-greylock-due-to-water-quality-issue/ ADAMS, Mass. (WWLP)– The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) says that anyone planning to go to the top of Mount Greylock will need to bring extra water. As of Thursday, people will not be able to refill water bottles at the summit due to water quality issues with the potable water tap. Potable water is water suitable for human and pet consumption. Drinkable water is available at the Mount Greylock State Reservation campground and visitor center. Bottled water can be purchased at Bascom Lodge at the summit. Visitors should also be aware that Bascom Lodge will be closing for the season on Sunday, October 23. On Sunday, October 30, 2022 the season will end and the road to the top will close, and amenities and other services will not be available. The visitor’s center is open year round. To read the full story,...

What is the deepest lake in Massachusetts? Ryan Pause | 95.9 | September 22, 2022 https://live959.com/what-is-the-deepest-lake-in-massachusetts/ For those that don't have the time and money to drive all the way to The Cape to go to the ocean (even though I think it's well worth it), we spend a lot of time in Berkshires or Massachusetts in general at what we call "The Lake." Whether you swim and fish at Windsor Lake in North Adams or enjoy live music at Onota Lake in Pittsfield where LIVE 95.9 presents the Live on The Lake concert series during the summer months. In fact, out of those two favorites, they're a total of over 3000 lakes here in the Commonwealth! Now of course many lakes including Cheshire Lake (what we been calling it for years even though you can't swim in it but you can fish in it), are man made. In the Berkshires, the water depth is uneven for a lake versus say if you head...

Dried out forests are on fire across Massachusetts due to record-setting drought Craig LeMoult | WGBH | August 26, 2022 https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/08/26/dried-out-forests-are-on-fire-across-massachusetts-due-to-record-setting-drought As wildfires burned for the seventh straight day in the Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, firefighter Karyn Lothrop stood at the edge of Pearce Lake as a Blackhawk helicopter approached. “He's coming in now,” she said. The pilot hovered the Massachusetts National Guard helicopter over the lake, causing the water beneath it to blow around in a circle, then lowered to fill the 600-gallon bucket dangling from a rope below. As quickly as it could, the helicopterlifted back up with a full bucket. In just two minutes, it would return for more. "This helicopter is working what we call the ‘ash fire’ at the moment,” said Lothrop, who works for the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation. “And it's got a real hot spot towards the center. It's a marsh, more [of a] wetland, that's been dried because of the drought. And so it's holding a...

Where to find universally accessible hiking trails in Mass. Natalie Gale | Boston.com | August 14, 2022 https://www.boston.com/travel/travel/2022/08/14/where-to-find-universally-accessible-hiking-trails-in-massachusetts Massachusetts is almost bursting at the seams with places to hike, bike, or spend time in nature. To help all folks plan ahead for a jaunt into the woods, here are some of the best universally accessible trails in the state. Most accessible trails are paved or hard-packed, with gentle grades and fairly wide paths—read on for more details. The below roundup includes trails in metro Boston, Cape Cod, and all the way out to the Berkshires. While some trips call for finding the trail closest to you, others might be perfect for exploring a new region of the state. For more information, check out the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Universal Access Program, increasing outdoor recreational opportunities for folks with mobility disabilities. To read the full article, please click here...

What are heat islands and how do they affect New Bedford and area towns? Kevin Andrade | The Standard-Times | August 10, 2022 https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/2022/08/10/what-heat-islands-and-how-do-effect-southcoast/10212721002/ NEW BEDFORD — Across from Serenity Gardens, Buddy Andrade sat in the shade created by the trees in front of the Old Bedford Village Development Corporation on Bedford Street, when multiple fire engines raced by on Pleasant Street.  "This is an all-day occurrence," Andrade, the corporation's director, said. "It's an older neighborhood now ... So, we have a lot of [health] problems. "Heat and housing helped trigger a lot of the issues we're talking about." There are many factors aggravating those, he said. But one of them is that of heat island. Heat islands, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, are urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures than the outlying areas. These densely populated zones are full of buildings, pavements, and other surfaces that absorb and re-emit heat with little to no tree cover. This causes temperatures to rise several degrees higher than greener spaces nearby. The results...

Massachusetts Has a Public Beach Access Problem Jose Da Silva | Boston Magazine | July 28, 2022 https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2022/07/28/intertidal-zones-massachusetts-beaches/ Massachusetts summers arrive with gifts—Red Sox games, maybe some free furniture from Jordan’s, and, of course, days to tan and splash along the shore—but also a particular frustration. Full beaches, full parking lots. Not enough shoreline. In my memory as a kid growing up in the Bay State, this frustration sounds like the dull hum of an outboard boat engine, and it looks like a man in a green wooden skiff. As kids, my cousins and I would head to Pine Island Cove, in Lewis Bay, to find a specific sandbar. The sandy spit, exposed at low tide, extended into a small channel. We’d run, spring from the sandbar, and achieve a rarified launch from dry land into water so deep we couldn’t touch the bottom. Inevitably, the telltale sound of the outboard would come in from the bay. The man in the skiff worked for Great Island,...

When is the Clarksburg State Park footbridge being replaced? The DCR says the project will be done next year Scott Stafford | The Berkshire Eagle | July 24, 2022 https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/northern_berkshires/footbridge-at-clarksburg-state-park-will-be-replaced/article_b685d5f6-09e0-11ed-82da-afee258f5644.html CLARKSBURG — The footbridge at Clarksburg State Park is still gone after being removed for safety reasons in the spring of 2021. And contrary to previous reports of a five-year process, its replacement will be installed next year. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation had told local officials that the pedestrian bridge, a key feature of a popular trail, would not be replaced for another five years. That would have been a hardship for regular users of the bridge, which connects a walking path around the Mausert Pond. The only way to get over the stream that the bridge once crossed is to climb down a more than six-foot embankment, walk through the stream on rocks and climb back up the other side. For elderly walkers, or even those not especially spry, the crossing is...

Barriers at the Beach: People tussle over scarce access as sea levels and property values rise Chris Burrell | WGBH | July 25, 2022 https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/07/25/barriers-at-the-beach-people-tussle-over-scarce-access-as-sea-levels-and-property-values-rise Summer traffic in Gloucester has become so extreme in recent years that residents can't always get out of their driveways or run weekend errands in town. Overwhelmed with the onslaught of traffic to its well-known public beaches, the city started an online reservation system this season specifically for nonresidents to secure parking spaces. City leaders hope that tool will mitigate frustration for both residents and visiting beachgoers. Other coastal towns are taking similar approaches to restrict the number of out-of-towners who can park near their shores. This dynamic of tightening access and rising demand in Massachusetts is stoking increasing tensions at the shoreline between would-be beachgoers and the gatekeepers controlling who gets on the beach and who doesn’t. It’s made worse by the fact that many beaches are shrinking due to the effects of climate change, eroding the already small...

Public lands preservation legislation comes up short Chris Lisinski, State House News Service | Commonwealth Magazine | August 2, 2022 https://commonwealthmagazine.org/environment/public-lands-preservation-legislation-comes-up-short/ BOSTON (State House News Service) – Lawmakers were unable to find agreement on a bill aimed at maintaining open spaces across Massachusetts in a marathon final formal session Sunday into Monday, but one top negotiator said he remains hopeful the measure can still pass in the coming months. Sen. Sal DiDomenico, one of the leads on a conference committee that failed to produce an accord by the time the Legislature shifted to an easygoing mode for the remainder of the 2021-2022 session, told the News Service he does not believe the proposal died with the final gavel. “My goal is to get this done during informal,” the Everett Democrat said Tuesday. “We’re very optimistic that we can come to a resolution. We made some progress during the last couple of weeks.” DiDomenico and his House counterpart, Rep. Ruth Balser of Newton, are tasked with...