Grassroots Data Collection for Advocacy

Name: Grassroots Data Collection for Advocacy
Start: 2025-10-15T17:30:00-04:00
Location: 20 Chapel St, Pittsfield, MA 01201-8502, United States

Schedule

Wed, 15 Oct, 2025 at 05:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

20 Chapel St, Pittsfield, MA 01201-8502, United States | Pittsfield, MA

You may be familiar with the terms citizen or community science, but what does that look like in practice? How does this data collection lead to better environmental advocacy? Join Berkshire Environmental Action Team, Hoosic River Watershed Association, and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission for a special Green Drinks panel to learn about different data collection projects that are taking place now, and what they mean for environmental advocacy locally. Attend Green Drinks on Wednesday, October 15th from 6-7pm at BEAT’s office in Pittsfield, MA.
Arianna Alexsandra Collins, executive director of the Hoosic River Watershed Association (HooRWA) will speak about water quality monitoring in the Hoosic River in its tributaries. She will describe the different sampling methods used and how factors such as temperature, bacteria load, and presence of benthic macroinvertebrates relate to water health.
Nick Russo will discuss how he has been conducting research and data collection in the field for street safety and walkability, using the Walk Audit model. He will be sharing the example of information gathered from Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield, and will demonstrate the Streetmix tool, which community members can use to redesign their own safer streets for advocacy and conversational purposes.
Brittany Ebeling will speak on BEAT’s work collecting water samples from storm pipes, assessing culverts for wildlife connectivity, and measuring local air quality. She will discuss how each of these data collection methods in turn fuels BEAT’s advocacy work and informs our campaigns to stop pollution at the source and ensure wildlife can move freely through the environment.
Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. To register for online participation, go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/W5Mflp6vRSONmCGSCUBCIQ#/registration
RSVP if you plan to join us for the in-person gathering (doing so helps us prepare our space so there’s room for everyone). In-person gathering beginning around 5:30pm.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/berkshire-green-drinks-grassroots-data-collection-for-advocacy-tickets-1657342258309?aff=oddtdtcreator