Author Explores How Past Disasters Inform Climate Action

For thousands of years, humans have faced environmental challenges – floods, wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and more. On September 25, Colorado-based geologist and science educator Lisa Gardiner will present a new book that explores how lessons from historical disasters can help us face climate change, an issue she calls “the catastrophe of our time.”

Gardiner’s presentation, free and open to the public, will be held at the Harvard Forest Fisher Museum in Petersham on Tuesday, September 25, at 7:00 p.m.

The book, Tales from an Uncertain World: What Other Assorted Disasters Can Teach Us About Climate Change, explores a history of human reactions to fast and slow environmental change, from flash floods to species invasions and eroding coastlines.

For 15 years, Gardiner has created educational experiences about weather, climate, and Earth systems for websites, museums, and classrooms as an educator at the UCAR Center for Science Education, an affiliate of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. She is the illustrator of NASA’s Elementary GLOBE series of storybooks about the environment, has been a Smithsonian Scholar visiting underserved schools in Louisiana, and has contributed to many public exhibits about climate change, weather, and air quality. Before her education career, Gardiner earned a PhD studying how clams and snails on the sea floor formed communities amidst changes in climate and sea level about 120,000 years ago.

Gardiner hopes her new book will empower readers to action. “Yes, the whole earth is changing,” she says, “... and we have caused that. But it’s individual decisions that add up to what we’re going to do about it.”

She points out, “In New England, today we can clearly see the impacts of so many trees being cut down during the colonial period. But at the time, you know, you were just heating your house. The examples in the book show environmental change at these really human, individual scales.”

Harvard Forest, founded in 1907 is Harvard University's outdoor laboratory and classroom for ecology and conservation, and a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site funded by the National Science Foundation. Its 4,000-acre property is one of the oldest and most intensively studied research forests in the U.S.  Open to the public year-round, the site includes educational and research facilities, the Fisher Museum, and recreational trails.  Learn more at http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu.

Selectmen Propose Community Meeting on Nichewaug

Selectmen Sept. 11 proposed to call a community meeting in October to try to arrive at a consensus regarding the Nichewaug. Town Moderator Bart Wendell agreed to facilitate the meeting. Final details will be presented at the Sept. 25 board meeting.

Wendell said to reach a consensus, all sides must feel they have been heard, everyone must feel a group meeting has arrived at a best possible solution and participants have to agree not to thwart an agreed consensus. Town meeting has voted once to demolish the complex but failed to approve spending to do that work.

The board recently received a proposal to redevelop the property but that has been withdrawn. Vice chairman Henry Woolsey has said he is hoping to find a "middle ground" between those who want to demolish the complex and those who would renovate it for various uses that might include condominiums, senior housing, accessible town offices and more.

Ann Townsend of Harty Drive asked, "The heat here is pretty high. How do we maintain civility?" Wendell said he would set ground rules for the open meeting.

In other business, the board declined to consider creating a formal Redevelopment Authority that could take over, own and operate the Nichewaug complex. Members said mostly large communities deploy such authorities which operate independently of town government and are exempt from state procurement laws.

The board appointed Lynne Feldman of Hardwick Road to serve on a newly formed school regionalization study committee.

Chair Nancy Allen said the Massachusetts Broadband Institute board of directors has approved a "draft agreement" that could assure that Petersham will receive a long-promised $880,000 grant after the local broadband system is completely up and operating.

New dump stickers will be for sale at the transfer station on September 15 and September 22 and are now available at the Selectboard office as well. They are yellow.

Cultural Council Seeks 2019 Funding Applications

Proposals for community-oriented arts, humanities, and science programs due October 15th. The Petersham Cultural Council has set an October 15th deadline for organizations, schools, and individuals to apply for grants that support cultural activities in the community.
According to Council spokesperson Linda Paquet, these grants can support a variety of artistic projects and activities in the Quabbin region -- including exhibits, festivals, field trips, short-term artist residencies, or performances in schools, workshops, and lectures. The PCC also gives grants for funding projects in the sciences and the humanities, such as historical or environmental education.

The Petersham Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. Previously funded projects include: Petersham Friday Market music, a first grade field trip to a “plant life” program at Mass Audubon, and free Ukelele lessons.  Applicants may apply for grants for programs that take place during an 18 month window of eligibility between July 1, preceding the application deadline in October, through December 31 of the following year. This means that applicants may apply for projects that have already happened or which happen prior to LCCs' grant announcements, with the knowledge that funding is not guaranteed.

Application forms and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at www.mass-culture.org and find Petersham after clicking on the applicants tab, follow the directions under “apply. Please submit applications online, if this is not possible then paper applications will be accepted by sending mail to the Petersham Cultural Council, Petersham Town Hall, PO Box 486, Petersham MA 01366. If you have questions about the application process contact Jeannette Martin at jeannettemartin326@gmail.com or Linda Paquet at lpaquet60@verizon.net

Walk-In Medical Care Center Opens in Athol

Heywood Healthcare has opened a Walk-In Care Center in the North Quabbin Commons Plaza at 81 Reservoir Drive, near Market Basket in Athol.

The new center offers walk-in treatment for everyday illness and injury, including cuts, sprains, fever, sore throats, ear aches and cold symptoms, with no appointment required. Tully Walk-In Care, shares an office with Tully Family Medicine to provide quality care and convenience seven days-a-week. As an urgent walk-in care center Tully Walk-In Care will help patients who may not be able to see their primary care physician, who don't have a primary care physician or who don’t need true emergency treatment.

Tully Walk-In Care operates 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. on weekends and holidays. For more information, please call (978) 248-8558.

Nichewaug Proposal Withdrawn for Revisions

Proponents of a plan to renovate the Nichewaug property withdrew their proposal to Selectmen on August 14. Speaking for the group, resident Stephanie Selden of Phillips Drive said, "We will try to collect more information, to resolve issues that have been raised ..." about the proposal for a mixed use complex that includes condominiums and senior residences. There is a hope that we can find a compromise, that we can actually do something with that property."