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ARTS: Screening of "Vanishing of the Bees" documentary Dec. 12 at Images Cinema

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- A book publisher, a local beekkeepers group and the cinema venue are combining to sponsor the screening of a new documentary, "The Vanishing of the Bees," on Sunday, Dec. 12 at 1 p.m.. The cost is five dollars.

Northern Berkshire Transition said Storey Publishing, the Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association and Images Cinema will include a honey tasting, local honey sale and a beekeeping Q-and-A after the 90-minute film.

Called by one reviewer "the most important documentary film since Inconvenient Truth."the movie explores Colony Collapse Disorder, the global phenomenon in which honey bees suddenly abandon their hive en masse. As one beekeeper says in the film, "Bees are essential. One out of every three bites of food we eat is the result of bee pollination."

Admission proceeds will go to support the beekeepers association. For more on Vanishing of the Bees, visit the film website at www.vanishingbees.com . For more on the Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association, contact Tony Pisano at [email protected] or visit the association's website at nbba.wordpress.com.

For more details and to RSVP go to Northern Berkshire Transition: http://northernberkshiretransition.ning.com/events/event/show?id=6027471%3AEvent%3A926&xgi=1jyMGd4HIXhF0C&xg_source=msg_invite_event

Three speakers heard by more than 50 at info meeting on Pownal biomass plant proposal

(from left, Matera, Lister, Smolker)

Watch archived video here (23 mins.) and here. (5 mins)

UPDATED: Nov. 25, with clarification and reference to Tom Greenwood comment.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Public-owned forests will be under pressure from clear-cutting proponents, and little additional electricity will be generated compared to environmental and health risks, three panelists told a crowd of more than 50 people on Saturday during an information session at a church here about a proposed Pownal, Vt., biomass-to-electric generating station.

A group calling itself the Bennington-Berkshire Citizens Coalition organized the event at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown, which abuts Pownal, where an abandoned racetrack site on U.S. Route 7 is proposed by Beaver Wood Energy, LLC as the site for a 29.5-megawatt, wood-burning generating station. The citizens coalition, which describes its view of the proposal,  invited as speakers:

• Chris Matera, a civil engineer from Northampton, Mass., who is part of a group called Massachusetts Forest Watch ([email protected]  / 413-341-3878.  See: http://www.maforests.org/MFWCarb.pdf
• Rachel Smolker, who works for a British non-profit, BiofuelWatch.org, and lives near Burlington, Vt. ([email protected] / 802-482-2848.
• Hillary Lister, of Athens, Maine, a library and movie-theater worker who lead that town's opposition to a wood-and-construction-waste burning biomass plant not far from Skowhegan. ([email protected] / 207-649-5980.

People proposing Pownal plant were involved in a plant in Maine, said Lister. She recited a litany of alleged emissions violations, threats to pull jobs, and fly ash from the plant given to nearby farms which had nails in it from the burning of construction debris. Lister termed the process "More like a snake oil sales... Dependent on subsidies." She asserted, based upon her experience in Maine: "They are going to do anything they can to get out of paying taxes."

Lister said small particulates from GenPower plant dangerous to lungs; ultimately Maine town banned construction-debris burning. She described fuel-pile fires, mishaps at Maine plants, says constuction debris burned, and a nearby school had to end outdoor recesses. 

Smolker, in her comments, focused on U.S. and world policies which have driven support of biomass projects.

Matera focused in his comments on the effects of forest clear cutting, using photos set to music and showing before/after scenes of forest stands leveled. He alleged a pattern of illegal clear-cutting in Massachusetts' state-owned forests and said officials tend not to enforce rules until the media is brought into the picture. There are five wood-burning power plants proposed for Western Massachusetts, says Matera, and if they were all built he believes pressure to accelerate forest cutting would increase in order to supply them because their woodshed areas overlap. If there isn't enough forest-cut wood, said Matera, plans will want to switch to burning construction waste instead.

Matera says Massachusetts by law forbids wood cutting on six percent of state-owned lands -- vs. 20 percent in New York State.

Besides the speakers, audience members asked questions, and a Williams College economist, Prof. William Gentry ([email protected] / 802-823-5534) , who lives in Pownal, spoke briefly.  The event was introduced and closed by Tom Greenwood, a property manager from New Ashford, Mass. ([email protected] / 413-458-8080).

Greenwood said the Bennington-Berkshire group was gathering information about the Pownal plant proposal but stated no formal position on it.  (see comment below) A second group, Southern Vermont Against Biomass, maintains a Facebook page.  

OTHER RESOURCES:

Beaver Wood Energy has posted their Section 248 filings to their website. You can download them here.

Bennington Banner: Pownal-Williamstown bioamass groups hire attorney

Writing in The Bennington Banner, reporter Keith Whitcomb Jr. says the Concerned Citizens of Pownal and Williamstown have joined to hire a Vermont attorney to represent them at a Nov. 19 permitting hearing on a proposed biomass electric-generating plant. In addition, the groups have set a meeting for Nov. 20 at 4 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Williamstown.

MORE: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/local/ci_16600094

http://williamstown.ws/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/jointprehearingconference.pdf

Mt. Greylock thespians ready "Love's Labour's Lost," for Friday and Saturday shows

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Mount Greylock Regional High School is presenting "Love's Labour's Lost," one of William Shakespeare's comedies, this Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the school here. Tickets at the door are $5 for students and seniors and $8 for adults.

The play, directed by Shakespeare & Company's Jonathan Croy and Conor Moroney, is a delightfully clever romp through a land of masquerade balls and mistaken identities, unrequited love and double entendres. It is a celebration of not only the crazy ways people act when falling in and out of love and lust, but also an exploration of the sacrifices people will make for love.

Set in fairytale-like eighteenth century France, the play tells the story of the King of Navarre and three of his lords, self-important men who decide to spend three years eating six meals a week, sleeping three hours a night, and forgoing women, all in order to devote themselves to study. Of course, a princess and her three ladies arrive, and soon the men fall in love.

The story weaves its way through both delight and tragedy, each moment tumbling after the next in a flawless sequence. "Love's Labour's Lost" is one of 10 plays being created by local high schools in conjunction with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, as a part of the Fall Festival of Shakespeare.

In its 22nd year, the festival sends professionals from Shakespeare and Company to work with high-school students in acting, set design, costuming, lighting, and general training.

"It's not like any other theater program because you get to work with professional actors and directors, and you do really good plays," said junior Hannah Paul, who plays Rosaline, one of the ladies. "This year's cast works really well together; everyone in Shakespeare loves to do it, so it gives the play a really good energy."

For more information contact [email protected] .

SOURCE: Shakespeare & Co., via MGRHS parents