Hopkins Forest Fall Festival

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The annual Fall Festival celebrating the "changing of leaves and the bounty of the forest" will take place Sunday, Sept. 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. in Hopkins Memorial Forest.

Hopkins Memorial Forest is located at the junction of Northwest Hill Road and Bulkley Street in Williamstown. The event is free and open to the public.

Featured activities will include visits to the canopy walkway and scientific stations. There will be children's events, forest-related trades and crafts, cider pressing, refreshments, and local music for entertainment.  Some of the activities, such as the cross-cut saw and shake-splitting, will be hands-on. The planned activities are appropriate for people of all ages.

Hopkins Forest is managed by the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies and spans more than 2,500 acres in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. The land was donated to the college by the family of Colonel Amos Lawrence Hopkins in the 1930s, and was deeded to the U.S. Forest Service in 1935 for use as an experimental research facility. Since then, the college has actively maintained the forest, which it uses for teaching and research.

It is a favorite haunt for Williams students who want a walk in the woods or a night out in the forest cabin. The forest's array of hiking and cross-country ski trails, visitor center, and herb garden are available for public use.

The annual event is an irresistible attraction for those who want to enjoy the beauty of the fall leaves in the Berkshires. Hopkins Memorial Forest is always a good place to look for color. Leaves from different trees have distinct colors. To help you spot the variety in Hopkins on Sunday, the short guide below may help in your identification of the trees:

Bluish = ash

Bright yellow = birch, poplar, willow

Red, orange = sugar maples

Scarlet = dogwood, Virginia creeper, red maple

Tan = white oak

Mahogany = beech

Dark brown = red oak

For more information on the forest and related activities, please contact the Forest Manager Drew Jones at (413) 597-4353.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Planning Board Narrowing in on Subdivision Bylaw Changes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board late last month discussed specific features of what it plans to pass as a new subdivision control bylaw this year.
 
The board long has discussed the complex set of regulations as being out of date and cumbersome to both potential developers and the board itself, which has needed to hear requests for waivers of outdated rules for the handful of residential subdivisions that have been proposed in town in recent years.
 
This spring, the town engaged consultants from Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning to go through the existing bylaw, compare it to more contemporary regulations in other communities and help craft a revised bylaw.
 
Unlike the zoning bylaw, where amendments require approval of town meeting, the subdivision control bylaw is a creation of the Planning Board, which can make changes on its own after a public hearing process it hopes to complete this year.
 
At a special Planning Board meeting on May 26, Dillon Sussman of Dodson and Flinker and his colleagues walked the board through a dozen different decision points that the board must resolve — either by leaving the bylaw as is or making a change — and offered suggestions based on best practices.
 
All of the issues are technical and ranged from the fundamental, like how the bylaw will define types of subdivisions, to the highly specific, like what turning radii will be required in new streets that are constructed to serve planned developments.
 
One example of a topic that came up in the recent approval of a four-home subdivision off Summer Street is stormwater management.
 
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