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Children and families help with the stocking of trout in Onota Lake on Wednesday.
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MassWildlife will release nearly a half-million trout this year.

Pittsfield Children Assist in Trout Stocking Onota Lake

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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MassWildlife offers opportunities for children to help with the stocking during school vacation week. 
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The wind blew a sharp chill through the air Wednesday afternoon but that did not stop the annual spring trout stocking at Onota Lake.
 
More than 75 community members enthusiastically released 600 rainbow trout, hailing from the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife's McLaughlin Hatchery in Belchertown.
 
Children leaped in the air as they waited in line for their white buckets to be filled with trout ranging in size from about a foot to up to 18 inches. 
 
"Fishies" some kids yelled and danced as they watched the fish swim into the lake energized by the sudden shock of being tossed into the cold water. 
 
"[The fish] like going in the water a touch harder than just being slowly slid in, just because it wakes them up. It's a physiological response," Leanna Fontaine, an aquatic biologist for Masswildlife's Western District, said. 
 
"So they like just kind of hitting that water and going so they actually handle it really well." 
 
Some of the older kids filmed themselves as they propelled the trout, giggling as the fish flew into the water. 
 
Parents, grandparents, and guardians helped and recorded as the youngsters walked down the sandy beach, buckets in hand, sometimes the same size as them, and gently dumped the trout into the water, sometimes narrowly missing. 
 
Although they were not yet strong enough to lift the bucket on their own to heave the fish, all trout safely made it to their new home.  
 
One grandparent thanked the organization members at the conclusion of the event expressing that the opportunity was the highlight of school vacation. 
 
Fontaine's daughter Isla Gagnon said she looks forward to accompanying her mom to work, enjoying how it is interactive and has given her a lot of happy memories.  
 
MassWildlife stocks trout two times a year, in the spring from mid- to late March through Memorial Day and two weeks in the fall at the end of September and early October. It will be releasing close to 470,000 rainbow, brown and tiger trout in lakes and rivers across the state this spring. 
 
Children and families are invited to help with the stock trout during school vacation week, which was the situation on Wednesday at Onota. Events were also held this week in Palmer, Plymouth, Westfield, Worcester and Woburn.
 
Trout stocking provides the opportunity to get people engaged with the outdoors, explore the area's waterways all across the state, and give them something to fish.
 
It can also "help take pressure off of other certain species, especially when they're getting ready to spawn because trout sometimes go into different waters," Fontaine said. 
 
"The species that are available early in the spring for people to be able to go after and the same thing in the fall."

Tags: department of fish and game,   fishing,   MassWildlife,   

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State Launches Workforce Innovation Tour at Interprint

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Secretary of Labor Lauren Jones starts her statewide jobs tour at Interprint in Pittsfield on Monday. The colors in the signage were inspired by the Eras Tour. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development kicked off its "revolutionary" workforce tour at Interprint and learned some about decor printing.

On Monday, the Healey-Driscoll administration launched the "MassHire 250 Workforce Innovation Tour" to celebrate local and regional workforce innovations across the state. From now until July, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones will visit each of the state's 16 MassHire regional workforce boards to hear about partnerships that fuel and sustain sectors.

"Berkshire companies are innovative in creating new possibilities," said David Moresi, chair of the Berkshire Workforce Board. "Technology and innovation are part of the Berkshires' industrious past, thriving present, and limitless potential."

In celebration of Interprint's 40th year in the city, state and local officials toured the surface design and printing facility and even participated in an ink matching exercise. With around 200 employees, the company sells its decorative papers and films worldwide and has seen several expansions.

"As I often say, workforce development takes collaboration and the network of organizations, community leaders, and workforce partners represented here demonstrates the partnerships that drive outcomes from career coaching and job training to employment," Jones said.

"That was demonstrated certainly by hearing some of the highlights shared during our tour of the partnership with MassHire and the employment and professional development outcomes that we see at a company like Interprint."

In a week, Massachusetts will join five other states in celebrating Patriots Day, commemorating the inaugural battles of the American Revolutionary War: Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy (Arlington). The workforce tour builds on the launch of Massachusetts 250, a statewide initiative to celebrate 250 years of America's independence and Massachusetts' revolutionary legacy.

Jones noted the Taylor Swift's Eras Tour inspired the signage.

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