West Stockbridge — Marijuana cultivation facility Wiseacre Farm will have an additional challenge at the start of the new year: documenting a written odor mitigation plan. The effort—proposed by the West Stockbridge Select Board at its October 12 Special Meeting to coincide with the farm’s annual licensing review and report due January 20—comes after residents of the town and nearby Richmond voiced concerns over pungent odors emanating from the plant that began operations in June.
Wiseacre Farm President Jon Piasecki, by himself and through attorney Aaron Dubois, said he has planted clematis; added screened fencing on a majority of the farm tract; dug down 20 feet for a level crop field so the planting tract is bordered by the higher ground of a railroad trestle and natural berm; and spaced his plants apart in an effort to allow for the dissipation, masking, or trapping of the odors. “The idea is to take advantage of this wall to stop the flow of odor,” Piasecki said. “It sounds like we have not done that adequately.”
He said he was willing to take greater measures to compensate for the smell, such as planting more clematis to mask the odor and incorporating an air moving system, or large fans, to disperse the odors away from the complainants. According to Piasecki, the odor is noticeable during the few weeks the marijuana plant is harvested, a period occurring as the plant blooms.
Although the clematis has been planted, it takes three years to develop and flower, Dubois said. To make matters worse, he said this year’s crop was delayed by two weeks, exacerbating the odor issue that could have been helped when the leaves remain fully on the trees. Currently, the majority of the harvest is over, with the remaining bulk of cutting the crop and freezing it to take place in the next week to 10 days, before the normal frost occurs, Dubois said.
However, both West Stockbridge and Richmond residents attending the meeting asked the board to take action now to further mitigate the odor. Wiseacre is situated in West Stockbridge, near the Richmond town line. “Wiseacre has the right to be a business in West Stockbridge; I wish them well,” said West Stockbridge resident Gary Quadrozzi, who lives on Cross Road. “However, they don’t have a right to make it so that I can’t sit on my deck and enjoy the day because it smells like a skunk.” He said the odor impacts the quality of his life and fears it may lower the value of his property or make it more difficult for him to sell his home if he chooses to do so.
Similarly, Baker Street resident Tom Walsh told the board that the smell began in early August and steadily grew stronger, infiltrating his house through closed windows and a running air conditioning system. His wife JoAnne Yurman said the odor was so pungent that it made her ill and that her experience living on Baker Street is “effectively gone.” Although some mitigation efforts have been made, she said “more can be done to help people like us who are severely impacted.”
According to Dubois, some individuals enjoy the cannabis smell, with the odor labeled “offensive” as subjective. A Swamp Road resident who lives near a farm said she smells cow manure all spring and that any complaints regarding the marijuana odor should have been made prior to Wiseacre being approved.
David Jadow, Piasecki’s landowner and business partner, reiterated to residents and the Select Board that the Wiseacre tract is located in a manufacturing zone where other industries could have gone. He suggested the pair could cancel their cannabis license and reopen the farm for hemp, which is not as regulated but possesses similar odors.

Speaking on behalf of Wiseacre were several of its employees who touted the business as being good for the community. Thirty years ago, Evelyn Garstang moved into her home that is now across the street from Wiseacre. She said she is used to odors, with Black Angus cows and sheep wandering into her yard over the years and doesn’t consider living “two weeks with the smell of marijuana and hav[ing] a great neighbor who has done everything and more that he said he was going to do” a sacrifice. Along with her life partner, David Valenti, Garstang helps Wiseacre with the harvest. “He’s brought revenue, he’s employed many of us where some places won’t let you come in and work a day,” she said of Piasecki.
But other Richmond residents don’t share Garstang’s opinion, telling the board that entire families have been affected. Cross Road’s Kathryn Wilson, speaking for herself and husband Sean Wilson, said Wiseacre’s odor is still evident, despite woodland separating her home and the facility. She said she can’t open the windows to enjoy the cool fall air and hopes more measures besides adding plantings will be made to mitigate the smell.
The issue was first brought to the attention of the Select Board on October 2 by Richmond Select Board Chair Neal Pilson, who asked the group to take action following several Richmond residents contacting him about the facility’s strong odor.
Wiseacre is governed by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, as well as a Host Community Agreement (HCA) executed September 13, 2022 between the West Stockbridge Select Board and Jon Piasecki, co-owner of the Baker Street facility. According to town counsel Nicole Costanzo with KP Law, who appeared via Zoom, an HCA is intended to address any concerns that might arise from the community about the marijuana operation, including odor mitigation measures. The document can be enforced by the board to regulate the establishment separate from the town’s zoning bylaws, she said.
Wiseacre’s HCA provides that the facility can include 90,000 to 100,000 square feet per its Tier 11 cultivation classification. The agreement also acknowledges that odor will be a part of that operation, requiring Piasecki to take reasonable mitigation measures by spacing plants far enough apart so as to create gaps for air and odors to dissipate, installing fencing around the farm to contain the odors, and planting jasmine to mask the smell, Costanzo said. Part of the facility’s operations are indoors, with air circulation systems to be installed. Other measures cited as optional include providing odor detection technology and misters to overpower plant odors. The HCA grants the Select Board the right to request Wiseacre add more odor-curtailing measures at its own expense, as well as demand a review of the action by an independent, third-party engineer, with the termination of the HCA provided as a remedy for noncompliance.
At the meeting, residents asked the board to honor the HCA it created with Wiseacre, working to mitigate the odor problem.
Richard Pfeiffer of Richmond’s Dean Hill Road said he didn’t get a chance to be a part of the process to permit West Stockbridge’s Wiseacre and considers the facility’s odor offensive “24/7” after first sensing it in July. He asked the board to find a quantifiable method of measuring the odor, create a written action plan, and hold Wiseacre’s owners accountable for mitigation practices to curtail it. “That’s not why I live in the Berkshires,” Pfeiffer said. “I don’t have fresh air anymore.”
Dubois reported that a recent review of Wiseacre by the Board of Health gave the results of 11 readings, with one showing “no odor,” one “almost no odor,” one “mild odor,” one “moderate odor,” four “moderate-plus odor,” and three “strong odor.” He said two of the three “strong odor” readings were on very humid days, noting that most of the results—eight out of the 11 readings—were below “strong odor.”
However, a resident pointed out that more than half of those readings showed “significant” odor as opposed to three readings showing “no odor,” “almost no odor,” and “mild odor.”
Piasecki pushed for an independent odor engineer or expert to wait to examine the facility until August of next year when the new harvest begins as well as the odor. He didn’t object to taking other measures in the meantime.
Chair Kathleen Keresey advocated for a written odor mitigation plan “sooner than later” in fairness to the residents attending the meeting as well as additional measures. Specifically, she suggested an odor management and response plan that establishes steps to be taken by Wiseacre and the opportunity to hire an odor specialist to guide the process. Members Andrew Potter and Andrew Krouss were in agreement. “Being proactive is a real important thing right now,” Keresey said.
Related coverage: The Berkshire Edge recently toured Wiseacre Farm in West Stockbridge. Click here to read about what we found out.
Correction: An earlier version of this article identified its cultivation classification as Tier 10. It is Tier 11.