Environmental activists in Northampton had a major victory April 10 when the city bought 229 acres of forestland and wetlands to protect them from development. The USA is losing 6,000 acres of open space to development every day. The Northampton land is on Sylvester Road. It will have hiking trails that will be open to the public.

One of the best places to hike in the Connecticut river valley is Green Mountain National Forest about 10 miles from Brattleboro as the crow flies. You can get there by free bus from Brattleboro but driving is much faster. There is one train per day to Brattleboro from Springfield, Massachusetts and other cities in the Pioneer Valley. To get back by train one would need to stay at a campground or hotel for at least one night.

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In Greenfield on April 15 there will be a peace rally. The rally will go from 11 a.m. to noon. It will be at the town common at the corner of Main and Federal streets. The organizers have a web site at www.traprock.org.

Last year the owner of the Brattleboro Reformer daily newspaper published in the Reformer an opinion article written by him. “War is the Answer” was the headline. The long article elaborated on why the multi-millionaire businessman feels Russia invading Ukraine is a good thing for the U.S. economy.

Paki Wieland was at a well-attended peace rally in Greenfield last year. She works for a group that has a web site at www.CodePink.org. She and the organizer of the Greenfield event, Emily Greene, told the Valley Post that the article by Reformer owner Paul Belogour is problematic. “The article is a deep dive into the mentality of Biden and Congress. We need to work for a different kind of world,” Wieland and Greene wrote.

Biden says he doesn't want Russia to invade Ukraine but will not send the USA's ground troops to Ukraine, or start an air war. The Greenfield activists are skeptical of Biden's statements in light of the fact that the USA, under Democratic and Republican presidents and congresses, has been involved in wars almost continuously since it was founded in the late 1700s.