Biodiversity Conservation report outlines state’s goals for the next 25 years
We all know the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) manages our state parks, forests, beaches, and other recreational assets. The agency is front and center in our lives, especially at this time of year. But with nearly 500,000 acres of public land under management, almost 10 percent of the state’s 5.2 million acres, it should come as no surprise that DCR lands have many rare and endangered species of both plants and animals that need our protection.
Adding to the importance of DCR’s role in keeping our ecosystem in good stead is the sheer diversity of topography the agency stewards. There is Mt. Greylock, our highest peak, in Western Massachusetts. Moving east there is the Connecticut River Valley, and farther east, the watershed lands that protect the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs. These critical assets provide recreation while yielding one of the least treated public water supplies in the nation. In the east, we have the Boston Harbor Islands, rich in history and culture in addition to being environmental assets, and the beaches and salt marshes of the South Coast, Cape Ann, and Cape Cod.
Within this vast matrix, there are more than 450 species of plants and animals protected by the state Endangered Species Act. DCR’s vast holdings contain some 1,100 populations of these species scattered around the state. DCR’s Ecology Program focuses on identifying and protecting them.
In addition to providing a bulwark against climate change, these lands provide habitat critical to supporting our state’s biodiversity. In recognition of that fact, the Healey-Driscoll Administration in 2023 issued Executive Order 618: Biodiversity Conservation in Massachusetts. The order called for a comprehensive review of existing state efforts to conserve the state’s biodiversity.
The order outlined goals and added the benchmarks of conserving 30 percent of the state’s land by 2030, now at 27 percent, and 40 percent by 2050. While many state agencies will support the effort in their own way, the Department of Fish and Game is the lead agency and DCR will be a key partner moving forward.
More recently, on August 21st the Administration unveiled it Biodiversity Goals for Massachusetts, the report envisioned by the executive order, at an event at Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Barnstable. The report outlines the goals to protect, restore and sustain resources. The Administration also plans to commit funds to involve communities in various projects, including creating biodiversity tool kits for use on the local level. Audubon is also kicking in $5 million toward achieving the 2030 goals.
The new environmental bond bill the Administration filed in June, the Mass Ready Act, will also play a pivotal role in protecting enough land to reach these goals. The bill, recently heard by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, currently contains authorizations for more than $370 million in capital spending over the next five years for land and biodiversity protection, a figure that may be adjusted up or down as needed while the bill moves through the approval process. ENR has yet to issue a final report on the bill, after which it will go to the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets for consideration.
Mass Parks for All welcomes this important effort to keep our state at the forefront of environmental and biodiversity protection. Not only is this good for our collective health, physical and mental, but it also helps our economy. Massachusetts now has the fastest growing outdoor recreation economy in the nation, worth more than $16 billion per year, including activity and jobs created.
If you want to be kept informed of these efforts or want to get involved yourself, you may sign up to do so here. Thank you as always for supporting our work, and in this instance, quite literally, the park you save may be your own.
Happy Labor Day!
Doug Pizzi is executive director of Mass Parks for All