In the Pioneer Valley town of Williamsburg, two land trusts are working to protect a 288 acre defunct golf course from development. If they succeed it will go back to being a forest. The land trusts need donations and volunteers. Details are on the Facebook page of one of the groups, Hilltown Land Trust. The other group is the Trustees of Reservations.
********
About 2,000 people marched in the rain April 5 in Brattleboro to protest Trump. One of the groups that promoted the event has a web site at:
The Valley Post has posted many photos in the past but our "content management system" (Drupal) is not letting us post photos anymore. We are seeking donations to hire an expert to fix this problem. Meanwhile, the photos are at:
https://www.facebook.com/eeshawilliams/posts/pfbid02L5wsFkJdufkJcidwhuED...
In the Pioneer Valley town of South Hadley about 400 high school students walked out of classes on March 31 to protest public school funding cuts. The National Education Association (NEA) is the nation's biggest union, and a major donor to the Democratic party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Democrat and a member of congress from New York who, with Bernie Sanders, attracted 30,000 people to an anti-Trump rally in Colorado on March 21. Amy Foley is president of the NEA chapter in South Hadley. On April 1, she told the Valley Post that about 400 students took part in the protest.
In Northampton about 800 people attended an outdoor rally to protest Trump's policies, an organizer told the Valley Post. The goal was to resist fascism. “If you’re tired of the barrage of news and want to do something, you’re not alone! We strive to mobilize, and more events are coming!” according to the organizers' web page:
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572916231647#
The rally was on March 9. A photo is at:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122117806232763874&set=pb.615729...
**********
In Northampton and the Pioneer Valley town of Westfield, workers at Starbucks are forming a union. Since June 2024, Ari Vaccaro has worked at the Northampton Starbucks that's not inside Stop and Shop. “We get $15.49 an hour,” Vaccaro told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on February 10. “We can't live in our town on that. The CEO of Starbucks makes $50,000 an hour.”
In Springfield a total of about 120 people attended protests on February 4 and 5. The goal was to get Democrats in congress to try to stop many or all of Trump's plans. “It was a success,” Wendy Penner told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on February 6. She was one of the organizers of the second protest and she is part of the group Greylock Together. “There were about 60 people there even though it was really cold. Staff people from both our U.S. senators' offices were there. We told them we want the senators to disrupt what Trump is trying to do.
Baystate Medical Corporation is refusing to sign a union contract for visiting nurses in Springfield. The nurses are members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association union. The nurses care for immigrants and low income people in Springfield's North End and Forest Park neighborhoods.
Flix, a German company, runs buses between the Springfield Amtrak station and downtown Boston that take 1 hour and 35 minutes. Tickets are $17. There are multiple Amtrak trains per day to Springfield from Holyoke, Northampton, Greenfield and Brattleboro.
Shutesbury, Massachusetts borders Amherst. On December 14, Kestrel land trust posted on its Facebook page, “We're grateful that we've been awarded a $327K grant from the MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Acquisitions for Forest Reserves to protect 200 acres in Shutesbury next year.” The forest is on Montague Road. The plan is to never log the land.
On December 10 in Amherst there was a march and rally for abortion rights, among other issues. Marisol Pierce Bonifaz was one of the organizers. She told the Valley Post that the marchers chanted, “Abortion is a civil right, war on health care, we will fight.” About 40 people were there. The organizers have a web site at:
https://generationratifyam.wixsite.com/website
********
In 2014, the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor closed permanently because
thousands of people marched in Brattleboro, and because hundreds of