On March 18, there will be a march for world peace. The march will start in Amherst and end in Northampton. The public is invited to attend part or all of the walk. It will start at 9 a.m. outside the church at 165 Main Street, organizer Tim Bullock told the Valley Post in a telephone interview on February 28. More information is at:

www.NewEnglandPeacePagoda.org/walk-for-a-new-spring

Almost half (47 percent) of this year's entire federal budget of about $3 trillion is being spent on war. That’s according to:

www.WarResisters.org/FederalPieChart

These photos of a snowy owl in New Salem, Massachusetts were taken on November 11. New Salem borders Pelham, which borders Amherst. Snowy owls are the heaviest owls in North America. They come to the Valley in winter; in summer they live in the Arctic.

To enlarge a photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." These photos were taken by Joe Oliverio. To contact him to buy prints, e-mail him at joeoliverio@comcast.net or visit his web site www.JoeOliverioPhotography.com.

War tax resisters from around the nation will host a public event in Amherst on November 3 at 7 p.m. Stopping construction of fossil fuel pipelines is the goal of a march in Northampton on November 5 at 5:30 p.m.

Sam Koplinka-Loehr will moderate a panel at the peace event. “I am a war tax resister because I believe a better world is possible,” she told the Valley Post. More information is at:

https://nwtrcc.org/programs-events/gatherings-and-events/schedule

These photos were taken on September 16. They show an apartment building under construction in downtown Amherst, next door to the post office, and farmland along Route 47 in Sunderland, Massachusetts. Sunderland borders Amherst. Single-family homes are almost always worse for the environment than multi-family housing. To enlarge a photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." photos by Eesha Williams

In Greenfield, nurses are asking the public to join them at a rally for justice on March 9 at 4:30 p.m. The event will be at the town common. The nurses work at the Greenfield hospital, now known as Baystate Franklin Medical Center. They are members of a union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which is organizing the rally. The workers want fewer patients per nurse, and better wages and benefits.

Thanks to the work of environmental activists, about 361 acres of open space in the Valley have been permanently protected from development. On February 24, the Kestrel Land Trust announced in an e-mail to its members it had saved 161 acres of forestland in Pelham, Massachusetts. Pelham borders Amherst. The land is open to the public for hiking.

About 400 people attended rallies in Amherst and Keene on January 15, declaring, “Healthcare is a human right.” President-elect Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are planning major cuts to programs that provide free or reduced-price health care to poor people. The Amherst rally was also intended to protest plans to cut Social Security.

About 200 people were at the Keene rally and about 200 attended the rally in Amherst. The rally in Keene was organized by the Monadnock Progressive Alliance, which has a web page at:

www.facebook.com/groups/MonadnockProgressiveAlliance

A new group is working to stop clear cut logging in the Pioneer Valley's biggest area of protected open space. The activists want to do that by persuading politicians to convert the 87,000 acre Quabbin state forest into a national park. Of that area, 58,000 acres is land, the rest is water. Stopping logging on the land would make it more profitable for logging companies to buy forestland that might otherwise be turned into houses, roads, Walmarts, and parking lots. Logging companies can be required to log sustainably, not using clear cut logging. This kind of rule exists in Vermont.

More than 100 people marched in Brattleboro September 13 in solidarity with Native Americans in North Dakota who are fighting to stop a proposed oil pipeline. On the same day in Amherst, about 100 people attended a rally for the same cause. Both events were promoted by www.350.org. The Amherst photo shows the activists standing in a circle on the town common; they also held signs at the main downtown intersection. To enlarge a photo, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." The Brattleboro photos are by Eesha Williams; the Amherst photo is by Gilbert Wermeling.

Activists saved 65 acres of land in Amherst and 45 acres in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Belchertown borders Amherst. Protecting land from development is one of the best ways to stop climate change, which the world's leading scientists say is a major threat to earth's ability to support human life. Most of the money for protecting land comes from the government; politicians decide how much to invest in saving land, versus tax breaks for billionaires, war, and prison for non-violent people.