Jane Winn is the executive director of Berkshire Environmental Action Team. She said that her love for wildlife stemmed in part from her childhood playing in the Housatonic and catching fish with frogs.
PITTSFIELD Jane Winn grew up in Pittsfield in a house that bordered a less than clean Housatonic River when General Electric was in its heyday during the 1960s.
This was Winn’s classroom. It ignited an interest in science and the environment. After graduating from college with a degree in biology and Zoology, she ran a science store together with Bruce Winn until 2002, when Berkshire Environmental Action Team, or BEAT, was established. In 2006, she was appointed its executive director.
Jane Winn spoke to us recently about her interest in nature, the formation of BEAT, the current work of the organization, and why it doesn’t always take the same positions as other local environmental organizations.
Q: How did you become an environmentalist?”
A:I grew-up in Pittsfield, right on the banks of Housatonic River. If you stuck a stick into the sediment, and wiggled it, you would see plumes of oil rising from the bottom. These are beautiful, brightly colored circles of oil that rise from the top.
I thought I was very good at catching frogs, but then I went to camp and discovered they move very fast. They didn’t do that in the Housatonic.
Q: What was your inspiration?
A:It’s kind of. It was GE that I blamed back then. I was a little boy and didn’t understand why no one did anything about it. I remember it being 1968. There was a river cleanup. People were going into the river to clean up trash. I was amazed that people would take the smell with them. It was so stinky that you would hold your breath as you crossed bridges. It was awful.
Q: Did your family do any environmental work growing up?
A:If I had known, I would have done it. I had a small group that we called the friends of Housatonic River. But nobody knew about us. We were simply playing in the river. My parents would have been horrified if they knew how much I loved the river.
Jane Winn is the executive director of Berkshire Environmental Action Team. She said that her love for wildlife was sparked when she was a child playing in the Housatonic and catching fish with frogs.
Q: How did you get involved?
A:I then went on to get my bachelor’s of biology from Quinnipiac University, and my masters in Zoology from UMass-Amherst. Eventually, I worked in an accounting department at a mental healthcare nonprofit (Franklin County Mental Health Association) in Greenfield. It wasn’t something I was involved in, but it gave my a good foundation in nonprofit accounting. Then, we had a science & nature store at Brushwood farms (in Lenox) that lasted seven years.
Then it was at BCC (Berkshire Community College), when they were redoing their soccer field. This was the college’s first attempt at artificial turf in 2002. Faculty were upset because they believed it could be done correctly, but were afraid it wasn’t. They called us (BEAT), saying “Hey, we have this issue. Can you help?” I don’t remember why they called me.
Q: Is that how BEAT was formed?
A: Exactly. Yes, there were good laws in Massachusetts. But they weren’t being applied. We began to videotape the (Pittsfield Conservation Commission hearings) and went to the DEP to get documents and try to point out that the law was being enforced. It was a great education in the Wetlands Protection Act of Massachusetts and how it works.
Q: Since then, BEAT has been involved with environmental issues in the Berkshires. How has it grown?
A:We have always kept an eye on the Housatonic and the entire cleanup by GE. This is one of our pieces. Our mission is to support the natural environment that sustains us all. So we always look at environmental issues with an eye towards how they will impact wildlife.
Q: Is your zoology degree a source of your interest in wildlife?
A:It is from playing in Housatonic and catching fish. Before I went to grad school, my goal was to become a veterinarian. I got waitlisted at Tufts and got into UMass for zoology and it was great. I shouldn’t have been a vet because (zoology), was amazing.
I was more concerned with individual animals back then than I am now. I am much more focused now on creating an environment that will support wildlife populations. I don’t think I’ve ever considered that before. It’s a big shift from focusing solely on animals to focusing all of the population and trying make sure they survive. That is in doubt with the climate crisis.
Q: How would you describe the habitat for wildlife in Berkshires right at the moment?
A:Under threat, oh boy! The threat is increasing because of the pandemic. I believe that more people are moving to this area and going on the trails. Wildlife has less places to go when they are not interfacing with humans.
Q: Is there a way for development to be balanced with conservation?
A:We are here to advocate for wildlife. We’ll let others speak on behalf of the humans, but I think humans should stop being greedy. We should be using existing buildings. There is less population in the Berkshires now than when I was a child, but we have built so much more. This shouldn’t happen.
Yes, we need low-income housing, but we have a lot more housing stock than we use. We need to make it more energy efficient and stop using fossil fuels. We’re working on that too, so people can use existing housing stock instead of building in the middle or the wildlife habitat.
Q: Getting back at the Housatonic River. BEAT sided in opposition to the establishment of any of the PCBdumping sites that GE wanted to include in the original Rest of the River Agreement. However, BEAT changed its position after a low level PCB dump in Lee was added to the agreement in 2020 after mediation. Why did BEAT shift its position?
A:We feel that we received a lot (in the most recent plan). We also got another 100 acres (removed the river). We got two dams removed. It was enough for us to convince that one low-level dump was necessary in the Berkshires.
Remember that during the consent decree (the 1998 agreement requiring GE clean up PCB contamination at Pittsfield) this all started. The consent decree was sent to district court, which allowed three dumps at Pittsfield. Fortunately, only two of them were built. They allowed three. That sets a very good precedent. GE had planned to have three dumps in the Berkshires under the Rest of the River agreement. This limit restricts them to one dump and they accepted it.
Q: So why not resist the dumps like the other environmental groups?
A:I believe it is a matter about what you think you could get. They will only have one dump if they win, but there will be at least 100 more acres of PCBs in our river. This is already causing problems for wildlife and people. It’s a fair trade-off to have one low-level lined dump to reap all the other benefits.
It would be wonderful if there wasn’t a Berkshires dump. I would love to see the sediment go to a licensed landfill. But I want it if you are only going to get the remaining PCBs out of the two dams and the two other dams. And I don’t know how you’re going to do that.
Q: Larry Parnass said to me two years back that your science friends understand why BEAT changed its position. But your environmental friends don’t. What was your meaning of that statement?
A:The scientists who study this science agree with me. My activist friends don’t, although I’m still friends with most. We disagree in one area.