Alford Land Trust : The Alford Land Trust, working in cooperation with town residents, officials and boards, seeks to protect Alford’s significant natural, agricultural and scenic resources. The Trust aims to promote and encourage land stewardship for the benefit of the environment, the economy and future generations by encouraging landowners to consider conveying conservation restrictions to the Trust.
Appalachian Mountain Club Berkshire Chapter : The Appalachian Mountain Club is a leading organization in outdoor recreation, conservation, and education in the northeastern USA. The Berkshire Chapter alone has over 3400 members throughout Western Massachusetts. We maintain trails and lead hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, and other trips… and you don’t need to be a member to participate.
Becket Land Trust : The Becket Land Trust is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization which owns and operates the Historic Quarry and Forest. It was founded by a group of citizens concerned about protecting the Town of Becket’s rural character, natural resources and ecologically sensitive areas. The Historic Quarry and Forest was the result of an extraordinary community fund-raising campaign to save a 300+ acre parcel of primarily wooded land from industrial development. To prevent detrimental impact on the site and the community, local citizens donated money to enable the Becket Land Trust to purchase the property and open the site to the public for recreational enjoyment.
BerkShares: BerkShares are a local currency designed for use in the Southern Berkshire region of Massachusetts with issue by BerkShares, Inc., a non-profit organization working in collaboration with the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, participating local banks, local businesses, and local non-profit organizations.
Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT): BEAT is dedicated to protecting the environment of Berkshire County and beyond.. As an action oriented environmental organization, we believe that an informed citizenry is the environment’s best protection. Our mission includes reaching out to the community by helping people to understand the value of our environmental assets, the laws designed to protect those assets, and the actions people can take to help protect their environment.
Berkshire Grown: Berkshire Grown envisions a community where healthy farms define the open landscape, where a wide diversity of fresh seasonal food and flowers continue to be readily available to everyone, and where we celebrate our agricultural bounty by buying from our neighboring family farms and savoring their distinctive Berkshire harvest.
BerkshireHiking.com: A great website to find places to hike, camp, bike, kayak, view the night sky, take a scenic drive, or even fly over.
Berkshire Wildlife Trackers : Berkshire Wildlife Tracking monitors areas in and around the Berkshires for sign of wildlife habitat usage. BWT’s wildlife habitat monitors are trained by the Keeping Track® program in Vermont that teaches volunteers to observe, interpret, record, and monitor evidence of wildlife habitat in their communities. This monitoring data will focus on wide ranging mammals to provide a vital indicator of the ecological health of the Berkshire landscape as a whole.
Berkshire Conservation District : The Berkshire Conservation District serves the community in the preservation of its natural resources. Authorized by State Statute, the District was created to coordinate state and federal conservation programs at the local level. The District provides technical assistance and education on soil, water, and related natural resources. Municipalities, farmers, and landowners use this information to make proper land use decisions. The Berkshire Conservation District is a not for profit environmental educational organization working side-by-side with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to protect soil and water quality in Berkshire County. Proceeds from our sales are crucial to the continuation of our programs! The programs funded by our sales include conservation planning assistance on public and private lands, soil survey reports, conservation tree seedling sales, bulb sales, training workshops, technical assistance, conservation education programs like the Envirothon, and environmental education scholarships & internships to BCC & UMass students.
Berkshire Museum : Fourteen galleries, an aquarium, a 291 seat fully equipped, air conditioned theater, classrooms and a museum store make up the Berkshire Museum. The mission of the Berkshire Museum is to enrich, inspire and educate through interactions with the arts, history and the natural world.
Berkshire Natural Resources Council : Berkshire Natural Resources Council is a land conservation and environmental advocacy group working throughout the Berkshires in Massachusetts to preserve threatened
lands. The Council places special emphasis on protecting Berkshire’s “working landscape” – the great farms, forests, streams and mountains which define our region’s distinct character and provide multiple economic, recreational and scenic benefits to the public.
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission : The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is the official area-wide planning agency in the Berkshire region, with comprehensive planning responsibilities which include assisting community and regional land use, transportation, economic development and environmental planning.
Berkshire Wildlife Sanctuaries of Mass Audubon : Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary on Holmes Road; in Pittsfield, Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary on West Mountain Road in Lenox; and Lime Kiln Farm on Silver Street in Sheffield.
Center for Ecological Technology : Since 1976, the Center for Ecological Technology (CET), a non-profit (501c3) organization, engages in work that demonstrates and promotes practical, affordable solutions to the environmental challenges encountered in our daily activities. CET’s mission is “to research, develop, demonstrate and promote those technologies which have the least disruptive impact on the natural ecology of the Earth.” From offices in Pittsfield, Northampton and Springfield, CET finds sustainable solutions to complex issues in order to benefit our environment, health, economy, and community.
Center for Environmental Studies (CES) at Williams College : Founded in 1967, the Center for Environmental Studies (CES) at Williams College is dedicated to the study of the intricate relationship between humans and their environments, with an eye towards learning how to move towards the future in a savvy yet responsible fashion.
Climate Crisis Coalition : The Climate Crisis Coalition seeks to broaden the circle of individuals, organizations and constituencies engaged in the global warming issue, to link it with other issues and to provide a structure to forge a common agenda and advance action plans with a united front.
Co-Act : Community Organizing for Action – Our mission is to develop and empower sustainable communities through networking, sharing knowledge, and co-acting with our neighbors.
Egremont Land Trust : The Egremont Land Trust is an organization of like-minded individuals dedicated to the preservation of the natural beauty and the environment of North and South Egremont.
We invite you to join with us in this endeavor.
Freecycle : The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,805 groups with 6,707,000 members across the globe.(2009) It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them’s good people). Membership is free.
Great Barrington Land Conservancy : The Great Barrington Land Conservancy is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the community’s natural resources and distinctive character. Through promotion and fund-raising endeavors, GBLC enables the dedication of open space to agricultural, recreational, and scenic purposes through acquisitions, conservation easements, and agricultural preservation restrictions.
Greenagers : Greenagers is a community force, giving us the most important resource we need to rebuild our world: each other. GreenAgers is an organization run by teens for teens. We act as a networking agent for the Green community, linking together existing school environmental teams, youth organizations, grassroots organizations, and projects, helping new ones get started, and creating projects of our own to fill unaddressed niches in the grassroots movement.
Green Berkshires : Green Berkshires, Inc. is dedicated to protecting farmland, mountains, and wilderness in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, and throughout northeastern United States. Current projects include protecting Greylock Glen at the base of Mount Greylock from inappropriate development, safeguarding Berkshire
ridgelines from wind power plant industrialization, and preserving the historic 780-acre Yale Farm in northwestern Connecticut from plans for a golf course and luxury housing.
Hancock Shaker Village : Hancock Shaker Village, Inc., is a private, not-for-profit educational organization that preserves and presents to the public the Shakers’ legacy at their community in Hancock, Massachusetts.
Hilltown Sustainability Group : Centered at the Old Creamery in Cummington on Route 9 (with the cow on the roof). The website includes a calendar of great events.
The Hoffmann Bird Club : The Hoffmann Bird Club was established in 1940 with a mission of promoting the study of birds in Berkshire County. The club was founded under the auspices of the Berkshire Museum. and named in honor of Ralph Hoffmann a naturalist who was born in Berkshire County.
Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) : Saving a New England Treasure from the Berkshires to Long Island Sound — HVA works to conserve the natural character and environmental health of our communities in the Housatonic River watershed by restoring and protecting our lands and waters for this and future generations.
The Laurel Hill Association : The Laurel Hill Association is the oldest continuously operating village improvement society in the United States. Laurel Hill has been responsible for the establishment and continuing stewardship of over 400 acres of parkland and miles of trails and pathways along the Housatonic River and throughout the hills surrounding Stockbridge, MA.
Lenox Land Trust : Recognizing the pressures on land use and also recognizing the rights of individual property owners, the Lenox Land Trust believes that it is imperative to preserve and maintain the rural New England character of Lenox and the surrounding area for present and future generations.
MassACORN : A cooperative resource network for the Westfield and Deerfield river watersheds. MassACORN’s goal is to better connect you to your woods and surrounding forests of western Massachusetts. We do this by providing sources of information, maps and air photos, and opportunities to learn from other woodland owners through their questions and answers.
Mass Audubon Society : Mass Audubon works to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and wildlife. Together with more than 100,000 members, we care for 32,000 acres of conservation land, provide educational programs for 200,000 children and adults annually, and advocate for sound environmental policies at local, state, and federal levels.
Monterey Preservation Land Trust : The mission of the Monterey Preservation Land Trust shall be the preservation of natural resources and open spaces, principally in the Town of Monterey, with particular focus on maintaining much of Monterey’s remaining farmland in agricultural production, protecting waterways, ponds and lakes, and setting aside a sufficient portion of Monterey’s forestland for multiple recreational activities.
The Nature Conservancy’s Berkshire Wildlife Linkage: The forests of the Berkshire and Taconic Highlands of Western Massachusetts link the Green Mountains of Vermont to the Hudson Highlands of New York, creating a connected corridor of habitat for wide-ranging species such as black bear, moose and bobcat. This geography—known as the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage—has an estimated 75 percent forest cover and includes the most intact forest ecosystem in southern New England. The Nature Conservancy and our partners have been protecting this landscape for decades because of its ability to support rare species, ensure clean air and water, provide beautiful natural areas for recreation, and store carbon.
The Nature Conservancy’s Westfield River Watershed : Central and western Massachusetts contain all or part of eleven exceptionally large, intact forest areas. Each of these forests contains least one unbroken block of contiguous forested land spanning 15,000 acres or more. These areas provide important habitat for wide ranging mammals, like the black bear, mink, fisher and bobcat, and interior forest nesting birds. They also link habitat from the mid-Atlantic through the Northern Appalachians, creating safe passages for migrating animals and supporting diverse populations of many different species.
New Economics Institute (formerly the E.F. Schumacher Society) : The New Economics Institute (formerly the E.F. Schumacher Society) is a US organization that uniquely combines vision, theory, action, and communication to effect a transition to a new economy — an economy that gives priority to supporting human well-being and Earth’s natural systems.
New Marlborough Land Trust : The New Marlborough Land Trust encourages and promotes the preservation of natural resources in the Town of New Marlborough to protect the Town’s unique rural character. The Land Trust works in concert with the citizens and governing bodies of New Marlborough for the benefit of the environment, our local economy, community education and future generations.
Orion Society : The Orion Society’s mission is to inform, inspire, and engage individuals and grassroots organizations in becoming a significant cultural force for healing nature and community. We accomplish that mission by way of our programs, websites, and gatherings of people brought together to explore the important issues of the day. The Orion Grassroots Network is the fastest-growing gathering hub of environmental and community organizations in North America, now actively supporting with several new member groups joining each week.
Richmond Land Trust : The purpose of the Richmond Land Trust shall be to help preserve important lands in the Town of Richmond and to provide guidance for planned development in harmony with the traditional rural and scenic character of the town.
Sheffield Land Trust : Not only is Sheffield important agriculturally, but ecologically it is at the heart of an area that The Nature Conservancy has identified as one of the world’s Last Great Places. The three-state Berkshire Taconic Landscape is globally significant for the conservation of our natural heritage. It contains one of the largest extant contiguous forests in the Northeast and an unusually high concentration of rare species and natural communities.
Sheffield Tree Project : The mission of the Sheffield Tree Project is to work closely with community members to plan, plant and care for a beautiful and diverse population of trees in the public areas of Sheffield, Massachusetts.
Stockbridge Land Trust : Over the past 25 years, the Land Trust has used a number of methods to carry out its mission of preservation. Its preferred method is the acquisition of a conservation restriction (CR) on privately owned land that has been identified as environmentally significant.
Tamarack Hollow : Tamarack Hollow provides place-based natural and cultural history educational programs that inspire participants towards land stewardship of the Berkshire, Highlands; Ct. River Valley regions.
The Trustees : To preserve, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value in Massachusetts.13 reservations in the Berkshires; all of which are open to the public; including: Bartholomew’s Cobble, Dry Hill, Field Farm, Goose Pond Reservation, McLennan Reservation, Mountain Meadow Preserve, Notchview, Questing, and Tyringham Cobble. The Trustees of Reservations Berkshires Regional office in Stockbridge at 413-298-3239 x3000.
Williamstown COOL Committee: The purpose of the Williamstown COOL (CO2 Lowering) committee is to promote sustainable living practices in Williamstown in a way that inspires community engagement, prompts individual action, and promotes the exchange of ideas and practices in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Williamstown Rural Lands: The Williamstown Rural Lands is a non-profit, member-supported land trust. It was founded in 1986 to address the loss of open space and public access, the disappearance of family farms in the Williamstown area and to encourage responsible development. The legal name of the organization is: “Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, Inc.” However, as of 2021, it does business as: “Williamstown Rural Lands.”