Currently residing in Wendell, Massachusetts, Nina Keller has had an active role in environmental and social activism in the Pioneer Valley and New England area for the better part of 40 years. Since the 1970s, Keller has played an active role in local and regional activism, from the antinuclear movement to hazardous waste disposal. She was an initial member of the Alternative Energy Coalition (AEC), was part of the Friends of the Earth (FOE) environmental organization, and most notably took part in efforts to close the nearby Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. At 62, Keller currently chairs the Wendell Board of Health, and has had a recent history of participation in local government.
The Nina Keller Collection is largely organized into five subject areas used by Keller to organize her files: Economics; Environmental Issues; Hazardous Materials; Nuclear Power; and Pesticides and Herbicides. Of note within these files are local, state, and federal reports and documents covering topics such as nuclear emergency evacuation plans, chemical sprays and their health effects, and hazardous waste regulation. Several items reflect Keller’s personal life, most notably two journals from Montague Farm, used communally for diary entries, drawings, clippings, photographs, and account keeping. The collection’s focus spans from the 1970s to the 1980s, as well as the early 2000s.
Nina Keller holding baby wearing a No Nukes t-shirt, June 1978. From the Roy Finestone Photograph Collection.
Currently residing in Wendell, Massachusetts, Nina Keller has had an active role in
environmental and social activism in the Pioneer Valley and New England area for the better part
of 40 years. Born in 1954, Keller spent part of her young adult life living on the Johnson Pasture
Commune in Guilford, Vermont. Part of the 1970s wave of experimentation in communal living, Keller
lived there with other residents until 1970, when a fire destroyed the farm and killed four
people. After leaving Johnson Pasture, Keller moved to Montague, Massachusetts, where she met her
husband, Daniel Keller, and lived at Montague Farm. The couple married in 1980 and moved to Wendell, Massachusetts.
Since the 1970s, Keller has played an active role in local and regional activism, from the antinuclear movement to hazardous waste disposal. In the early 1970s, Keller was one of the first members of the Alternative Energy Coalition (AEC), an anti-nuclear activist organization. Their initial efforts involved blocking the construction of a nuclear power on the Montague Plains (today a Wildlife Management Area). Keller’s involvement in activism led her to be a part of other organizations such as the Friends of the Earth (FOE), an environmentalist organization, as well as the Clamshell Alliance, a 1980s outgrowth of the AEC. Keller’s more recent forays in activism include protesting a proposed uprate and license renewal of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant; the plant eventually ceased operations in 2014. In 2015, Keller also took part in protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline, planned to run through Western Massachusetts. In 2016, bowing to public pressure, Kinder Morgan withdrew their plans to construct the pipeline.
As well as being a vocal environmental activist, Keller has played a prominent role in local politics. For a time in the early 2000s, she was the Wendell Representative for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, a regional cooperative organization for the 26 towns of Franklin County. In 2006, Keller sponsored a town warrant to create the Wendell Nuclear Advisory Committee, whose goal would be to create an emergency response plan in the case of a nuclear accident. At 62, Keller currently chairs the Wendell Board of Health, and continues to maintain an organic garden on her Wendell farm with her husband.
Scope of collection
Since the 1970s, Keller’s active role in local and regional activism, as well as her later
participation in local government, has resulted in a varied compilation of both research and
personal interest documents. The Nina Keller Collection is largely organized into five subject areas used by Keller to organize her files, representing the key areas of interest evident in her work. Those subject areas are: Economics; Environmental Issues; Hazardous Materials; Nuclear Power; and Pesticides and Herbicides. The collection’s largest subject areas are Nuclear Power and Pesticides and Herbicides.
Within the Nuclear Power portion, documents range from anti-nuclear ephemera to newspaper clippings covering various topics pertaining to nuclear energy. Of note are several folders concerning the now-closed Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, located in Vernon, Vermont. Documents include official reports concerning the plant’s capacity and condition, as well as letters and local town statements in opposition to the plant. Other topics include radioactive waste and evacuation plans for local towns and other communities in the region.
Within the Pesticides and Herbicides subject area are several folders containing articles, reports, and other documents relating to chemical sprays such as dioxin, krenite, sevin-4, and temik. Also included are reports from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Government Accountability Office, and other federal and state agencies regarding pesticide use, their regulation, and their environmental and health effects.
Of note in the other subject areas are correspondences with the Friends of the Earth
environmental organization and reports authored by the state and federal agencies on the subjects
of transmission lines, hazardous waste regulation and disposal, and agricultural pest control.
Several items reflect Keller's and other's lives as participants in communal living arrangements, most notably two journals from Montague Farm, where
Keller lived after leaving Johnson Pasture Commune in 1970. The "Farm Journal" and "Bathroom
Journal" were used communally for diary entries, drawings, clippings, photographs, and account
keeping, and highlight some of the people, activities, and interests on the farm. These
journals are available in digital format only.
Inventory
Economics:
Energy Industry Labor Clippings and Materials
1970-1980
Box 1: 1
Materials from James Donaldson
ca.1977
Box 1: 2
Right-of-Way and Selective Bush Management Reports
1964-1979
Box 1: 3
Environmental Issues:
Bonneville Power Admin./Dept. of Energy Transmission Lines Report
