“I walk in the Franklin State Park every day and really am disgusted about how deteriorated the park has become due to ATVs and off-road motorcycles that tear up the trails...in the part of the park where these vehicles are prohibited, there is no one to police the trails, so they go on them anyway.” —Wendy, from Franklin

“I have been enjoying Harold Parker State Forest all my life, camping, hiking,
skating and fishing there for over 50 years. But in the last decade, I’ve noticed a serious decline...the forest is heavily used by the public, but there are few amenities and little or no policing, trash removal, trail improvement or regulation of activities.” —Walter, from North Reading

“Years ago the 2,500-acre Middlesex Fells Reservation was managed by a park professional assigned to oversee and maintain the park with a trained crew. But today, due to severe budget cuts, the park doesn’t even have one full-time DCR ranger assigned to it. The result is that many park visitors worry that the Fells is losing the battle against paintballers, vandals and trash dumping, just to name a few issues.” —Mike, from Stoneham

Parks suffer from lack of funding

From every corner of the state, the stories that we’ve heard and read are strikingly similar. Thousands of Massachusetts residents cherish their state parks and forests. Yet they’re finding it increasingly hard to ignore the effects on these lands of decades of state neglect.

The state owns nearly a million acres of public land, encompassing hundreds of public forests, parks and reservations. From the peaks of Mount Greylock to the coastal plain of Myles Standish State Forest, the Massachusetts state forests and parks system supports dozens of rare species and critical natural communities, boasts exemplary old growth and champion tree sites, and annually attracts more than 30 million visitors who walk, play, camp, bike, hike and otherwise enjoy these natural resources. As home to the nation’s first public park, Massachusetts has a long legacy of public land reservation.

Sparsley staffed, poorly maintained

As early as 1994, a report commissioned by the state Legislature found the system overburdened, sparsely staffed and poorly maintained. Sadly, that trend has continued unabated.

For example:

Massachusetts currently ranks 48th in the nation in per capita spending on parks and recreation. We rank last on spending as a percentage of income.

Since 2001, the budget for the Department of Conservation and Recreation has declined 30 percent and full-time staff have been cut by 35 percent, and right now only five rangers patrol 320,000 acres outside of metro Boston.

Clearly, even 12 years after the Legislature’s initial report, our forest and park system is struggling more than ever. What can our elected officials do to help restore our forests and parks?

They can start by following these “trail markers”:

• First, restore funding. While our parks need and deserve a long-term investment, we can start the job by committing an additional $10 million per year over the next four years—that’s less than $1.60 per person.

• Second, promote better management and planning. Without long-term planning and stewardship, ad-hoc decisions about our parks are made under the public radar or at the behest of commercial interests that compromise preservation and betray the public trust.

• Third, let citizens once again participate in the process. In the late 1990s, the Legislature dissolved the Citizen Advisory Committees, which were organized around properties or clusters of properties. These committees offered input on management, helped with maintenance, and provided a crucial public forum in which to share information and build consensus among local community members. We need to bring them back.

In order to accomplish these goals, Environment Massachusetts is taking our case to the Legislature, the governor and the public.

“With a new governor and a new Legislature deciding how Massachusetts can best invest in improving our state,” says Environment Massachusetts Advocate Jen Baker, “now is a perfect opportunity to put this issue front and center, and ensure our beautiful open spaces are prioritized.”

Refreshing tired souls

Charles Eliot, the nineteenth century advocate for green spaces, said that for people to be healthy and happy, they “must have space for air, for light, for exercise, for rest and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature, which, because it is the opposite of the noisy ugliness of towns, is so wonderfully refreshing to the tired souls of townspeople.”

“Our tired souls need these public places,” says Baker, “It’s time to protect and preserve our heritage and natural treasures for future generations to enjoy. Massachusetts can, and should, lead the way again.”