On August 13 spokeswomen for two land trusts told the Valley Post their groups had helped permanently protect 2,900 acres of forest from development. The land will be logged but the trees will grow back and one day the land could be protected from logging, if enough people protest.

The land is in Chesterfield, Colrain, Huntington, Montague, Warwick, Westhampton, Williamsburg, and Whately. The Trustees is one of the land trusts. It owns 2,036 acres in the Pioneer Valley. All of the 2,036 acres are open to the public. “There may be some selective removal of trees that are dead or diseased. We do this for public safety or to limit the spread of disease to other trees. We do not do regular timber removal or logging on our properties” in the Pioneer Valley, Mary Dettloff said.

Kari Blood of Kestrel land trust said, “Kestrel works with landowners to conserve forests as forests, either as wildlands or as working forests. Here are some examples of our forever wild efforts in the past:

www.kestreltrust.org/the-gift-of-forever-wildlands-in-shutesbury-leveret...

www.kestreltrust.org/old-growth-forests-champions .”

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On August 16 in Springfield there will be a rally to protest Trump. The rally starts at noon at the corner of Boston Road and Parker Street. The organizers have a web page at www.fightthetrumptakeover.com.

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In Brattleboro on August 16 at noon there will be a rally to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The rally will be outside the main post office. A group that's promoting the rally has a web page at:

https://grassrootsfund.org/groups/upper-valley-action-affinity-group