08/24/2025
A great opportunity to learn and ask questions.
BERKSHIRE NATIONAL PARK FOR PEOPLE, BIODIVERSITY, AND CLIMATE
PLACE: Bascom Lodge at Mount Greylock State Reservation
DATE: Sunday, August 31, 2025
TIME: 5:30 - 6:30 pm
Presentation is open to the public and free of charge.
The science is clear: we need natural and near-natural areas to stabilize climate, prevent massive biodiversity loss, and benefit public health and well-being. Yet, less than 4% of New England, and even less of Massachusetts, meets this protection standard. Can we address this gap? Yes! National parks have provided this protection since the designation of Yellowstone in 1872 as the world’s first national park. A campaign to designate a new generation of national parks offers a positive way to highlight important places, connect the public to our natural heritage, and enact strong legislative measures to provide permanent protection.
Michael Kellett will talk about a proposal to create 100 new national parks across America — including ten in New England. This presentation will feature a spectacular Berkshire National Park, which would reach from the Connecticut River Valley to New York’s Taconic Mountains, and from the Vermont border to the Litchfield Hills in Connecticut.
Michael is the founding executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a New England-based nonprofit organization established in 1992. He has 40 years of experience advocating for national parks, wilderness, natural forests, free-flowing rivers, and imperiled wildlife. In 1994, he developed the original proposal for a 3.2-million-acre Maine Woods National Park, which laid the groundwork for the 2016 designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument by President Obama. He co-authored three pending Massachusetts bills that would designate 80% of state public lands as permanent parks and reserves protected from logging. He has visited more than 260 national park areas across the country.
(photo: Chris Matera)
For more information: https://www.restore.org/events/2025/8/1/berkshire-national-park-for-people-biodiversity-and-climate
