Boston Protesting corporate greed and destruction of the environment, a crew of activists from Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, and western and southeastern Massachusetts gathered May 4 outside Boston Westin’s Seaport Hotel to demonstrate against A.D. Makepeace, a corporation based in Wareham, Massa

In those towns a dozen residential wells have been ruined, angering homeowners in this rural, working-class community and activating some of them to unite with Indigenous and white residents and environmental activists. They have formed a coalition, made up of Save the Pine Barrens, Environment Watch of Southeastern Massachusetts and Land & Water Protectors Plymouth & Beyond, to try to stand against this mammoth company with the misleading name, Makepeace.

The coalition has taken action on multiple fronts, appealing to state agencies to do their jobs to oversee and enforce local and state land-use laws and regulations. The coalition has appealed the nonactions of town boards to the state’s Attorney General, as well as bringing lawsuits in state courts. Protests have become more frequent.

There are some rays of hope-giving light. In early May 2022, two coalition members were elected to the local governing boards of selectmen for two of the affected towns, including Melissa Ferretti, president and chairperson of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe.