Get Thee to a Park
Doug Pizzi | March 26, 2020
As we hunker down in response to COVID-19 and distance ourselves from each other, there are precious few opportunities to break the sheer monotony. Sure you can watch television, listen to music, read, and play games, all worthy pursuits, especially now.
But that’s not going to get your heart rate up or give you that endorphin fix that you regularly need to feel healthy physically and mentally. Fortunately, one of the best things we can do to accomplish that goal is still available to us. If we do it responsibly, we can still take advantage of our massive state park system.
Read: Massachusetts State Parks COVID-19 Update
With 450,000 acres under management, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is largely open for business. Of course, they have closed the skating rinks, playgrounds, outdoor athletic fields and courts, and other facilities that, by their very nature, bring people in close proximity to each other. But the parks, forests, bike trails and beaches are open, with two conditions. Bathrooms are closed and trash receptacles have been removed to further inhibit the virus from spreading.
Saturday, March 21, was clear and crisp, bordering on cold, but the sky was azure blue with nary a cloud in sight. So my wife and I, with only fleeting time out of the house in the last few days, decided to head over to Callahan State Park.
The park, an 800-plus-acre preserve in Marlborough and Framingham, is just a few minutes from where we live. Its many trails, open to hiking and mountain biking, cover a varied terrain of forested hills, meadows, brooks and ponds. The parking lot at the entrance to the Marlborough side of the park was full, which I almost never see.
We walked those trails for about an hour-and-a-half, passing by other singles, couples, families, and, of course, dogs. We maintained our distance to take advantage of this great outdoor space without risking harm to others or ourselves. This brief respite from the reality of the pandemic we’re fighting provided us lasting benefits, both physical and mental, for the balance of the day, maybe longer.
It is also important, though likely not at the top of anyone’s list right now, to be thinking of what will happen to these precious open spaces once things get back to normal. With your help, we made significant progress toward restoring DCR’s ability to provide the kind of recreational experiences we taxpayers deserve—experiences that contribute greatly to the $16 billion annual Massachusetts outdoor economy. The $7 million increase the Legislature gave, and, to his credit, Gov. Charlie Baker signed, in the Parks and Recreation Account (line 2810-0100), allowed DCR to begin to recover from deep fiscal cuts going back years. This appropriation followed the previous year’s increase of $2 million in that account.
Unfortunately, the Governor, in his proposed FY2021 budget, level-funded the 2810-0100 account, which due to inflation, is actually a cut in funding. The House Ways and Means Committee, where the proposed budget now sits, postponed its scheduled budget hearing for this month. House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz has said that it is unlikely the House will act on the budget until May.
MCV and other environmental NGOs are seeking a $2.75 million increase in the 2810-0100 account to continue the progress we’ve made over the last two years. DCR also has approximately $750 million in bond authorization funds from the 2018 Environmental Bond Bill. The Baker Administration approves projects drawing from that sum on a case by case basis. Keeping DCR moving forward in its operational and capital spending represents the best course for Massachusetts residents and visitors who use DCR property and facilities. It also represents a shovel-ready way to jumpstart our lagging economy, which is likely to get worse before it gets better.
When the time comes, we’ll be asking you to contact Ways and Means and your legislators to urge them along this prudent, even necessary course. We will also be urging you to ask legislators to reject the Baker Administration’s proposed transfer of DCR parkways, Storrow Drive, Soldier’s Field Road, Day Boulevard and Morrissey Boulevard to MassDOT via outside budget sections 5, 96, and 107. For more information, see our January and February blogs on our website.
Until the legislatively created Special Study Commission on DCR completes its work, which was just starting when COVID-19 shut everything down, it is premature to even talk about transferring roads through historic park landscapes, some designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot, from our park agency to our highway agency.
For now, get thee to a park and enjoy one of the few things we can still do to bring fresh air to our lungs, happy thoughts to our brains and smiles to our faces until things to get back to normal.
Doug Pizzi is the Executive Director of Massachusetts Conservation Voters