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.

Clarksburg Students Write in Support of Rural School Aid

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
07:25AM / Sunday, March 15, 2026

Mason Langenback calculated that Clarksburg would get almost $1 million if the $60 million was allocated equally.

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Eighth-graders at Clarksburg School took a lesson in civic advocacy this week, researching school funding and writing letters to Beacon Hill that call for fully funding rural school aid. 

 

The students focused on the hardships for small rural schools and their importance to the community — that they struggle with limited funding and teacher shortages, but offer safe and supportive spaces for learning and are a hub for community connections.

 

"They all address the main issue, the funding for rural schools, and how there's a gap, and there's the $4 million gap this year, and then it's about the $40 million next year, and that rural schools need that equitable funding," said social studies teacher Mark Karhan.

 

A rural schools report in 2022 found smaller school districts cost from nearly 17 percent to 23 percent more to operate, and recommended "at least" $60 million be appropriated annually for rural school aid. 

 

Gov. Maura Healey has filed for more Chapter 70 school aid, but that often is little help to small rural schools with declining or static enrollment. For fiscal 2027, she's budgeted $20 million for rural schools, up from around $13 million this year but still far below the hoped for $60 million. 

 

Karhan said the class was broken into four groups and the students were provided a submission letter from Rural Schools Advocacy. The students used the first paragraph, which laid out the funding facts, and then did research and wrote their own letters. 

 

They will submit those with a school picture to the governor.