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Published: January 10, 2008

Mass Audubon and Housatonic Valley Association Receive Major Education Grant for Berkshires

Mass Audubon volunteer Ernie Moynihan assists a young canoeist on the Housatonic River.

Visit the HELP website

LENOX, Mass.-Mass Audubon and the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) have been awarded a $631,410 multiple-year grant to create the "Housatonic Environmental Literacy Program (HELP) for the River." The funding for the HELP environmental education grant is drawn from $15 million in natural resource damages that GE agreed to pay in 2000 to State and Federal Trustees as the result of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contamination to the Housatonic River watershed. This environmental education grant will help restore and repair the relationship of Berkshire County's children, families, and public to the Housatonic River and its tributaries.

"Over the last 14 years, more than 8,000 students have been introduced to the Housatonic River through our organization," said Mass Audubon President Laura Johnson. "This grant will allow us to expand our program, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Housatonic Valley Association and the communities in Berkshire County to help them reconnect with the Housatonic River in a positive manner."

Through this grant, Mass Audubon and HVA will create a comprehensive river education experience for public and private elementary- and middle-school students in the Housatonic watershed. Additionally, high-school students will be eligible to participate in the Envirothon environmental literacy program. The public will also enjoy free canoe trips during the summer to experience the river. The grant runs from January 2008 through June 2010 to allow for greater outreach to the community.

"We believe this is a great way for the future stewards of the Housatonic River to learn why people still love this river," said Dennis Regan, HVA's Berkshire Program Director. "This program will give students the opportunity to visit the river and experience it firsthand, as well as learn how our actions impact the river, and vice versa."

Fourth- and sixth-graders will learn about natural history, water quality and land use, industrial history, and the arts, and participate in science experiential activities. A series of in-class lessons taught by educators hired through the grant will be reinforced by student field trips within the watershed and canoe trips on the river. The funding will also provide for an annual symposium in which students can demonstrate their knowledge and also learn more from local environmental experts.

With grant funds, students at the seven public high schools within the Housatonic watershed can participate in Envirothon, a national after-school skills-based program that engages teenagers in local environmental issues. The Envirothon teams foster youth development and life skills with a community and environmental focus. Civic and science knowledge and skills are also enhanced.

A third component of HELP for the River is a free canoeing public program on the Housatonic River over the next two summers. "Having grant support through June 2010 will enable us to reach far more citizens and students, and by extension, their families, than would have been possible if this were but a one-year program," said Renéaubach, director of Mass Audubon's Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries. "We hope that this extensive programming will go a long way towards connecting the community with their river on an intimate basis."

The HELP program is one of ten restoration projects within the Housatonic River watershed in Massachusetts awarded by Trustees from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from an initial round of projects funded by the settlement with General Electric. The funding must be used to restore the natural resources and services that were impaired as the result of the chemical waste contamination.

In 2000, the multinational corporation agreed to clean up and pay for damages caused as the result of PCB releases into the Housatonic River and its tributaries from its facility in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The United States Environmental Protection Agency oversees the remediation, while State and Federal Trustees oversee the expenditure of the $15 million in natural resources damages divided between affected geographic regions in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Posted January 10, 2008

Contact Jan Kruse at jkruse@massaudubon.org or 781-259-2134 for more information.