ORGANIZING NOTES
December 2, 2025
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Forests as Wildlands are Critical to Our Clean Water
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Earth’s sustainable life system on land, and all of us, are completely dependent on fresh water. About 50% of earth’s land rainfall originates from the oceans. Much of that rainfall is slowed, collected and stored on land by the spongy soils created by wild forests and trees. This captured rainfall becomes our wetlands, lakes, reservoirs and underground aquifers. Trees also pump a lot of stored water back out of their spongy soils, and breathe it out as mist that creates clouds, which provide the other 40 – 60% of on land rainfall. Cloud production and recycled rainfall from forests moves fresh water inland to the center of continents. Without wild forests and trees to provide these services, the 50% of on land rainfall that comes from the ocean dries up or runs right back to the sea, quickly, as floods.
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Logging Policies Have Degraded Water Capacity Statewide,
Making Drinking Water Vulnerable
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o All MA’s primary drinking water sources, including the Quabbin Reservoir, are at 73% APCW or lower. See Fig 1
o The forever-wild Catskills and Adirondacks, NY’s primary drinking-water watersheds, are at 100% APCW. See Fig 2
o Nearly all MA state-owned public forests are logged and harvested annually.6
o There are currently multiple “proposed harvests” in the Quabbin Reservoir’s watershed forests.7
o After 3 months of drought (July–Sept 2025), the Quabbin Reservoir’s capacity dropped by 8.9%.
o On June 1, the Quabbin was 93.3% full, but October 1, it was down to 84.4% (drought starts at 80%). 8
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To Protect Our Fresh Water Supplies, Cooler Temperatures,
Carbon Capture and Storage, and provide habitat for biodiversity we must preserve wild forests:
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Join ORMA’s “Trees” working group to become part of the fight to preserve our watershed and our trees. Volunteer HERE
*Citations
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Listen in on Indivisible’s Solidarity in Action call of the year: Resilience for Sustainable Activism with special guest Nkem Ndefo on Thrusday, December 4 at 7PM to learn about the Resilience Toolkit. Nkem Ndefo is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of the Resilience Toolkit, a model that fosters embodied seld-awareness, supports stabilization from the impacts of personal and collective trauma, and nurtures adaptive capacity in the face of stress – all within an ecologically sensitive and social justice-oriented framework.
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Local Visibilities Schedule
Watch for rain cancellations here! But another good way to keep up with day to day and weekly changes is to join a Signal Group
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De-ICE Hanscom is excited to announce weekly afternoon standouts! They will take place every Friday from 1:30pm to 3:00pm at the Hanscom Rotary. The Hanscom Rotary is at the intersection of Hanscom Dr. and Old Bedford Rd. in Lincoln, MA. Please park along Old Bedford Road or Hanscom Drive without impeding traffic or blocking bike lanes.
Folks can sign up for De-ICE Hanscom’s contact list at this link.
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We hope that the Massachusetts House of Representatives will soon begin debate on the bill. And we need you to take action ASAP! Contact your State Representative TODAY at this link and urge them to support this critically needed legislation! Let’s get it passed in the House and sent to the Governor’s desk!
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Protect Our Neighbors Here in MA
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Join the Indivisible Mass Coalition statewide call on Tuesday, December 9, from 7-8PM with guest speakers from LUCE and La Colaborativa for a panel discussion about what’s happening now with our immigrant neighbors and the best actions we can take. Submit questions for the Q&A with your RSVP HERE!
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Celebrate some good amidst the onlsaught of bad…
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If you would like to work with ORMA Members on
- Climate Change
- Housing Justice
- Medicare for All
- Communications/InformationTechnology
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ORMA depends on your support to continue Bernie’s Political Revolution to create a society, a politics, and an economy that works for everyone, not just billionaires, corporations and the political elite.
If you value Organizing Notes and its twice a month distribution schedule, please make a donation to ensure its continued existence.
Invest in Change Now!
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Please send requests for action items, articles or upcoming events
for the next Organizing Notes to
beccobrien.orma@gmail.com by Saturday, December 13th.
We’d love to have you send us your favorite pictures of Bernie here in MA!
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Campaigns End, Movements Endure
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