Special Legislative Commission on DCR has rare opportunity to benefit our parks

Special Legislative Commission on DCR has rare opportunity to benefit our parks

Public input is key to any successful outcome

By Chuck Anastas and Doug Pizzi

Every public park department and local open space committee felt the strain on its resources caused by the tremendous pandemic-driven increase in park attendance in 2020. With most day-to-day social opportunities shut down, people across the nation turned to our parks and other open spaces to satisfy both their physical and mental health needs.

Closer to home, no organization felt this strain more than the state’s premier park system stewards, the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Throughout the ebb and flow of the pandemic, where it was safe to do so, DCR kept our forests and parks open – all of the time. Some areas of the state saw as much as 300 percent increases in use.

Now enter the Legislative Special Commission on DCR. Conceived before the pandemic by state Senator William Brownsberger of Belmont and passed in 2019 as a budget outside section. Its mission is to study the state park system’s workings to see how it might be better managed.

Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides is responsible for the study and its nearly $500,000 budget. She, in turn, has asked Faye Boardman, her chief of staff, to chair the Commission’s work. Ms. Boardman has proven her commitment to DCR and its work during her career. More recently, her support and encouragement to develop an online asset management tool will allow more real-time information to flow between on-the-ground park managers and regional and state park administrators.

But as we emerge from this long COVID winter during which DCR performed so well, it begs the question, what is the problem to study? Secretary Theoharides has tasked the UMass Donahue Institute to run the study, and it promises a report by May for a June Commission vote; at least that was the plan as envisioned at the Commission’s first meeting last month.

Like most first meetings tackling a large problem under a tight deadline and doing so remotely, the meeting was a bit disorganized and lacked clarity. Commission members seemed caught off guard with the speed with which they will be expected to consider and approve the report. And the nearly 100 virtual attendees, which proves there is considerable interest in our park system, were wondering if there would be any public process before the report’s acceptance.

Advocates again voiced that concern at the most recent meeting of the DCR Stewardship Council. Sarah Freeman, from Boston’s Arborway Coalition, urged the Council to push for public participation. Several Councilors also voiced their support for public input, and Council Chairman, Nate Walton promised to carry that message to the next Special Commission meeting. For its part, the Special Commission has heard the plea and is actively considering how it might satisfy that demand. Though at present, there is no concrete plan or formal commitment to make it happen.

As you might expect, MCV has some suggestions for the Commission and particularly the UMass Donahue Institute.

First and foremost, given the subject matter, scope, and the half-million public tax dollars powering this effort, there must absolutely be ample opportunity for the public, the people who have the most to gain or lose from anything this effort generates, the people who pay the bills, to weigh in in a meaningful way. Absent this feature, MCV would urge the Commission not to accept the report. As for the report itself, it would be a critical misstep not to conduct an in-depth examination of the resources DCR stewards on our behalf and the sad history of a decade of disinvestment that followed the 2008 Great Recession, which has only begun to be reversed over the last two budget cycles with the strong support of the House and the Senate.

DCR manages about 450,000 acres of land, more than half the size of Rhode Island. Within those vast holdings are lands as different and geographically distant as Mt. Greylock, October Mountain, and Bash Bish Falls on the state’s western border, to our beaches and reservations on our eastern ocean edge – and the skating rinks, swimming pools, splash pads, and athletic fields in-between.

These lands serve hikers, runners, anglers, hunters, campers, golfers, cyclists, swimmers, skaters, dog owners, horse owners, skiers, bird watchers, and children. The diversity and depth of DCR’s responsibilities are critical to meeting the needs of people living in our state’s most densely packed city neighborhoods to our most rural outposts and contributes mightily to the state’s $16 billion annual outdoor economy.

Given the sheer size and importance of DCR’s holdings and its legislatively mandated responsibilities, the report must also address DCR’s operating budget and ask: is it enough? Just as important as how much money DCR needs is the source of that money. Specifically, do we want a park system that relies on broad-based general appropriation tax dollars to sustain it or regressive user fees that hinder the ability of those who most need our parks to use them freely? Recent trends to increase the percentage of the budget paid for in user fees and other non-tax income are as wrong-headed as they are fiscally imprudent.

Secretary Theoharides, Faye Boardman, and the Commission have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to envision a park system that recognizes, as the pandemic has proven beyond all doubt, that our physical and mental well-being, and in no small part our economy, is directly connected to our access to quality, well-run recreation facilities. After decades of benign neglect and even outright cannibalization, nothing short of that will do. 

Chuck Anastas is Chairman of the MCV Board of Directors
Doug Pizzi is MCV Executive Director

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If you’d like to view the most recent Stewardship Council meeting, a recording is available on our website, where you’ll find a discussion of the DCR Special Commission. The recording also includes an important presentation and discussion of the DCR general appropriation budget.

Check the EEA or MCV website for the Zoom link before each meeting. MCV will post meeting info as soon as it’s available.