Solomon Foundation Renews MPA Funding

We at Mass Parks for All (MPA) would like to thank all of you for your support since we launched MPA in May 2023. Because you joined our efforts to better our state parks, the Lawrence & Lillian Solomon Foundation, our first institutional funder, has decided to renew its initial funding level, this time for two years.

Last year, the foundation awarded us a $50,000 challenge grant in two parts over 12 months. In each six-month period, we needed to raise $25,000 to obtain a $25,000 match. Thanks to all of you who so graciously donated to us, we met both matches and received the grant. Earlier this month, foundation principal David Solomon and Executive Director Herb Nolan told us they will award MPA the same $50,000 challenge grant this fiscal year and a like amount next year. We thank the Foundation for supporting this important work.

We used the initial funding to begin building out a statewide organization by hiring a Central Massachusetts Regional Coordinator, Jenn Lord Paluzzi. Jenn helped us kick off our Friends of the Friends Campaign, welcoming the brand-new park friends group, Friends of Callahan State Park. More than 60 people, including state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Brian Arrigo, Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge and state representatives Danielle Gregoire, Jack Patrick Lewis, and Kate Donoghue, joined us at the Callahan Club across the street from the park’s South Entrance. The club is the community center for Millwood Preserve, an over-55 condominium development.

MPA will be reaching out to other friends groups in Central Massachusetts to offer our statewide perspective on our parks, including operational and capital budgeting, to help friends groups advocate for their own parks, and together with other friends groups, advocacy for our entire state park system.

The model for this is our successful 2022 State Park Summit, which yielded a DCR critical needs letter to the incoming Healey-Driscoll Administration, the Legislature, and the media signed by 55 organizations from across the state.  

In the fall, we plan to add a Greater Boston Regional Coordinator to begin the same grass roots coordination with the many state and municipal park friends groups there, including park, parkways, watershed, bicycle, and pedestrian support organizations.

We would also like to see the Healey-Driscoll Administration file a new environmental bond bill with the Legislature. These bills allow state agencies to finance long-term capital projects. The Legislature passed the last one, a $2.4 billion package, in 2018.

As you know, DCR has accumulated a $1.0 billion deferred maintenance backlog due to a decade of underfunding following the 2008 recession. In the past, we have called for a $250 million annual capital budget for DCR so it can eliminate the backlog in a timely fashion while keeping up with the inevitable new capital needs that arise each year. The $152 million capital budget the agency has this fiscal year will not allow for that.

One area where eliminating the backlog is critical is in mitigating the effects of inadequate and/or damaged stormwater control systems. These systems extend from Western Massachusetts to our Greater Boston historic parkways, and if not functioning correctly cause flooding and with it, pollution. With climate change being a reality, including more frequent massive rainstorms, the need to fix these structures becomes more acute each year.

You may recall that the only cut the Administration made from the Legislature’s FY2025 DCR appropriation was a $1.8 million reduction in the Stormwater Management (2800-0401) account, now funded at $1.6 million. In doing so, the Administration filed a veto note stating that any difference there could be made up through the capital budget.

There is no better way to make up for that slack than with an environmental bond bill. Those of us who care about our parks must ensure that our voices are heard and that the bond bill, if and when it emerges, is sufficient to build a 21st century park system.

This effort builds on the advent of two fiscal years of large operations funding increases for our parks, all the more remarkable because the Commonwealth’s revenue picture via tax receipts has been uncertain at best over the last year and promises to be in similar straits over the coming months.

With your help over fiscal 2024 and 2025, and the Administration’s and Legislature’s recognition of how important our parks are to our physical and emotional wellbeing, DCR’s operations budget increased by 29 percent, to $110.0 million. The seasonal employee account, used to staff DCR assets during peak use periods, increased by 18 percent, to $28.5 million. During the same period, the overall state budget increased by 9.7 percent, to $57.8 billion. This is a marked change from past practice, when DCR was always one of the first agencies to get cut when tax revenues faltered.

Ultimately, an environmental bond bill is the vehicle through which DCR can make consistent progress at paying down the $1.0 billion deferred maintenance backlog the agency accumulated over the decade following the 2008 recession.

Please stay involved and help us in this effort. The park you save may be your own.

Stewardship Council Stakeholders Committee holds second listening session

On Aug. 12, the DCR Stewardship Council Stakeholders Committee held its second listening session via Zoom, and more than 30 people took the time to attend during peak vacation season and offer their views on what they see as the greatest improvements for DCR and any operational needs at the agency.  

Several people, including MPA, cited better stakeholder communication from DCR, both directly and via social media. Stakeholder Committee chair Susan Smiley lauded the agency’s efforts to build a capital project dashboard to make its actions and progress more transparent. Others discussed the need for better coordination with the agency over shared used trails, particularly trails that snowmobilers use in the winter months, and mountain bikers use in the summer, and dealing with overcrowding and noise at some parks. You can watch the entire session here.

Mass Central Rail Trail “Finish the Trail” website adds Google Map viewing links

In June, we wrote about MPA’s involvement in the statewide effort to generate support for completing construction of the 104-mile Mass Central Rail Trail by the end of the decade. The effort includes a ride along the trail over three days, Sept. 20, 21, and 22, starting in Northampton and moving east.

We also noted that the “Finish the Trail” website was up and running. Now, thanks to some funding from our partner in all things parks, the Solomon Foundation, you can see the newly added links to Google Maps segments of the trail so you can explore it virtually before putting wheel to ground.  

For further information about the trail, the effort to finish it, and the trail ambassador ride next month, contact Mass Central Rail Trail Coalition Chair Craig Della Penna at craigdp413@gmail.com.

Doug Pizzi is executive director of Mass Parks for All