Sarah Gardner, Lecturer in Environmental Studies and Associate Director
Environmental Studies majors and concentrators engage with the Berkshire community through the Environmental Planning Workshop. Required for all environmental studies students, this course brings students into cities and towns in the region to work with local leaders on planning projects. While we study global and national environmental policy at Williams, in this course, we focus on local problems and local action. This year four student teams of three immersed themselves in projects in Pownal, Vermont, Williamstown, North Adams and Pittsfield.
The North Adams Renewable Energy Action Plan
Conor Dunham ’19, Chris Washington ’18 and Jane Tekin ’19 worked with city councilor Eric Buddington to develop a renewable energy plan for the city of North Adams. The students researched the existing renewable projects, the electric grid capacity for more renewable energy, interviewed solar developers and city and state officials, contacted private landowners and business owners, and searched for opportunities to develop new rooftop and parking canopy solar projects onpublic and private sites throughout the city.
Roots Rising Food Truck Feasibility Study
Working with the Berkshire Botanical Garden and the Alchemy Initiative, which joined forces to create Roots Rising, a youth agriculture and job development program in Pittsfield, the students researched possibilities for the program to become financially sustainable. To this end, they investigated a range of income-producing projects that could fund the program, specifically focusing on the potential for the students to own and operate a food truck selling prepared food made from product from local farms. Madeline Downs ’18, Jackson Johns ’18, and Sarah Ladouceur ’18, conducted a feasibility study and developed a business plan for the clients, finding that it’s not easy to gain entry into the local food truck business and it’s not easy to make money at it either.
Pollinator Protection in Williamstown
Williamstown voted to be a “pollinator friendly community” in May 2017 and activists in town quickly applied for a grant to fund activities to raise community awareness and increase pollinator habitat in town. Working under the guidance of the Pollinator Committee leaders, Bridget Spann of Caretaker Farm and Anne O’Connor, Williamstown Selectwoman, the students gathered information and spatial data about current land management practices to establish a foundation of social norms, incentives and potential regulations that would promote more pollinator friendly landscapes. Among the many challenges to the initiative in
changing the cultural aesthetic that favors lawns over meadows and tidy shrubs over native perennial pollinator gardens. The team, Natasha Baranow ’18, Katy Dix ’18 and Molly Knoedler ’18, interviewed dozens of institutional and private land managers as well as landscaping companies and golf course owners. They made extensive and detailed recommendations and also started a petition for Williams College to become a pollinator friendly campus. Their recommendations included areas on campus for re-meadowing and native plantings.
Pownal Superfund Recreational Reuse Plan
Just north of Williamstown lies Pownal, a small Vermont town that is among the lowest income communities in the state. Once a mill town, a manufacturing town, and an agricultural area, as well as the home of the Green Mountain Racetrack until 1992, today Pownal has few businesses or job opportunities and a declining population, an abandoned racetrack and an empty but remediated Superfund site at a former tannery. In 2017 the Vermont Community Development Program selected Pownal into a program to receive a year of technical and planning assistance for economic and community development. The student team worked under the guidance of the Recreation Task Force. The task was to research areas for public parks and recreation in the town sorely lacking in public spaces. Students Kathryn Cunningham ’18, Natalie DiNenno ’18, and Johanna Wasserman ’18 spent many days in Pownal meeting with people and interviewing elected officials and even held a hands-on planning project with elementary school students. Their feasibility study for a town park at the former Tannery site helped the town win a $24,000 grant from the Pownal Recreational Trails Program from the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation.
Please see the final project reports and powerpoint presentations at https://ces.williams.edu/environmental-planning-papers/
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