North Quabbin Notes, March 15

NORTH QUABBIN — The region was represented at this year’s annual state convention of national Libertarian Party affiliate “Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts” (MAUL.)

Tasked with the honor of chairing, Ann Reed of Orange presided over the business meeting; Charles Larkin of Athol was elected MAUL State Committee Secretary; party member Louis Marino, also of Athol, announced plans for a 2024 U.S. Senate run; and party member Justin Costa of Warwick contributed to debate from the floor. Libertarian conventioneers gathering from across the Commonwealth filled downtown Worcester’s Electric Haze bar and hookah lounge on March 11.

In addition to Marino, who spoke of his plans to unseat Democratic incumbent Elizabeth Warren, Larkin took stage with more local campaign news of his own. The former teacher has entered a race for an Athol-Royalston Regional School Committee seat in Athol’s upcoming April 3 Town Election. Reed, chairing on the heels of her term served on the MAUL state committee, declined nomination to a post for the coming year.

Area libertarians interested in forming their own county affiliate to Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts may contact state political director Janel Holmes at political@lpofma.org.Whereas Franklin County lacks a local affiliate to the state body, a neighboring affiliate, the Libertarian Party of Worcester County, has accommodated members from Franklin border communities. In addition to the Worcester affiliate, MAUL includes Middlesex County, lower Pioneer Valley and South Shore affiliates.

ORANGE — The Orange Council on Aging is looking for a SHINE Counselor. This will be a volunteer position. If you are interested in attending the Zoom training and volunteering one or two days per week for this position, or for more information, please call Tracy at 978-544-3481.

ORANGE — The Soup and Song event to benefit the North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy will be held on Friday, March 24, 5:30-8 p.m. at the Boiler Bar & Grille Banquet Hall, 245 Tully Road, Orange. A reminder that Pinesdale Road Bridge is closed.

The cost is $10 per person. Entertainment will be provided by John DeWitt and the Techtonics, Richard Chase, Jack Arnot and more.

ATHOL — Saturday . March 18, a pancake breakfast will be held at Athol Congregational Church on Uptown Common, 7-10 a.m. This is an all you can eat event. Pancakes, blueberry pancakes, French Toast, sausage, juice coffee and fruit. $8 for adults, $4 for children ages 5-12. Children ages 4 and under are free.

PETERSHAM—Harvard Forest is delighted to host Dr. Susan Trumbore for a free public lecture in the Fisher Museum on Friday, March 31, from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. The presentation will also be live-streamed online and recorded.

This is the postponement date for an event that was originally scheduled for October 2022.

Trumbore is universally recognized as the leading authority in applying radiocarbon dating to environmental science. She is the director and scientific member at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and professor of earth system science at the University of California, Irvine.

Trumbore is the inaugural presenter of the Harvard University’s Charles Bullard Lectures. The lecture series was established by Harvard Forest in 2022 to honor and learn from renowned scholars of forest ecology and conservation. Every autumn, the lecturer will present both in Cambridge and in Petersham.

This year’s lecture in Petersham will focus on the amount of time carbon remains in ecosystems before it is returned to the atmosphere. The answer is important because it tells us how we might be able to better manage forest plants and soils to store carbon. Trumbore will use data from the new International Soil Radiocarbon Database to demonstrate how carbon transit times change globally, suggest how we can use this information to test global carbon cycle models, and what we can learn about better managing soils to take up carbon.

This event in the Harvard Forest Fisher Museum (324 North Main St., Petersham) is free and open to the public. No RSVPs are required. The Harvard Forest welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you require accommodations, or have questions about the event, please contact Clarisse Hart, director of outreach, at 978-756-6157, hart3@fas.harvard.edu.

To attend the event online, to access the recording after the event, and to learn more about Trumbore’s presentation in Cambridge, visit environment.harvard.edu/bullard-lectures.