April Blog: A Word on our New DCR Commissioner
Doug Pizzi | April 18, 2023
MCV has received calls and emails questioning the qualifications of the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s appointment to lead the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). Following MCV’s State Park Summit last October, we and more than 50 conservation organizations issued an open letter detailing the background and skills needed to lead the agency.
While it is true that Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo does not have an extensive background in land and resource management, he does have considerable experience and expertise in running a small city. As mayor, he presides over a $240 million annual budget in a city that employs more than 400 people, not including the School Department. In addition, as DCR commissioner, he will preside over an agency that shares many characteristics with a city. These include road maintenance and snow plowing, streetlight maintenance, solid waste removal, water quality protection, and park operations and maintenance – the number one concern of park users.
The Healey-Driscoll Administration’s obvious support for state parks, as evidenced by its H.1 proposed DCR budget, may result in Commissioner Arrigo holding the position for the next four years, providing stability to an agency that saw six commissioners come and go over the last eight years, which, combined with historical staff and budget cuts, left DCR and park users in a no-win situation.
No matter their background, every new DCR Commissioner has a steep learning curve. Our public lands are as diverse as our state, encompassing lands in cities, suburbs, and rural areas with a diverse array of people using those lands. MCV wishes our new Commissioner well. We are committed to working with him as advocates for our public lands. We may not always agree during his tenure, but we all want and need him to succeed.
Public Access to Public Land – Memorial Drive, Cambridge
As the pandemic and our memory of its darkest moments recede, it is essential to remember what, in many ways, saved us – public lands. By the thousands, we took to our shared open space that offered us respite and release from the pandemic’s terrible isolation. It was a revelation for many just discovering our wonderful park system. And now that they have, demand has not abated.
During the worst of COVID-19 and its variants, DCR closed a portion of Memorial Drive in Cambridge to vehicular traffic every weekend during the warmer months. Memorial Drive is one of Greater Boston’s many historic parkways. By definition, it is part of the public park along the Cambridge side of the Charles River. DCR issued a statement last week discontinuing the Saturday closure. For many, it’s a sad end to a popular DCR policy. However, Sunday closures from Western Avenue to Riverbend Park will continue.
StreetsBlog broke the story reporting that, according to DCR, the end of Saturday closures was a decision made on Environmental Justice grounds. The diverted traffic was affecting already overburdened neighborhoods with increased traffic and resulting exhaust, DCR said. But the agency offered no data to back up its decision to oppose the majority of residents and the City of Cambridge, who want Saturday closings to continue. Anecdotal accounts cannot replace a bona fide traffic study, including a vehicle emissions analysis that would quantify any negative impacts closing the road may cause. If DCR has such data, we wish it would share it.
In an April 3, 2023, letter to Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang, DCR Commissioner Doug Rice said the Saturday closing was an effort to increase much needed urban outdoor recreation during the pandemic. But now that the state of emergency has ended, the agency is going back to pre-pandemic access in part due to the impact the Saturday road closing had on abutters.
“With the lifting of the COVID-19 emergency order on both the state and federal levels, DCR has determined a return to pre-pandemic operations at Riverbend Park is appropriate at this time. This change is to ensure compliance with Chapter 457 of the Acts of 1985 and to address the impacts on those on the surrounding neighborhood,” he wrote.
The law codified the practice of closing the road on Sundays but does not speak at all to Saturday closings. MCV would like to see some traffic and air quality data to back up the Environmental Justice claim. Asking the public to accept that this unpopular decision to reduce access to public land was based on an important public policy initiative like Environmental Justice without releasing any data to back up the finding is unacceptable. Over the years, one of the biggest criticisms of DCR has been the agency’s lack of transparency in giving reasons for its decisions. We hope soon-to-be Commissioner Arrigo tackles this issue for the good of the agency and the public.
Regardless, those who want to keep the Saturday closures are not giving up. Backed by the majority of the Cambridge City Council and many, but not all, neighborhood residents, advocates are continuing to talk to state legislators and are planning a rally in support of Saturday closures on Saturday, April 29. Watch this space for continuing developments.
Meanwhile, on the Ware River
Regarding another unpopular plan to limit access to popular public land, DCR has a 145-page draft watershed public access management plan it is citing to reduce access to some portions of the Ware River Watershed.
In general, the plan seeks to bring the Ware River Watershed into agreement with plans that govern access to the Quabbin and Sudbury Reservoirs, the major source of drinking water for Eastern Massachusetts, and a back-up water source no longer used for drinking water, respectively. Area residents opposed to reducing access point out that the Ware River Watershed is neither of those, and want to keep the current level of public access in place.
At a Joint Committee on Ways & Means budget hearing on the Governor’s budget recommendation for environmental agencies, Senator Anne Gobi peppered the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs with questions about why the agency is considering limiting access to publicly owned watershed lands in Central Mass.
“I will support my constituents, residents of the Watershed, staunchly. From sporting groups, to the passive recreational users of the area, I am glad to elevate their voices and advocate on their behalf,” Sen. Gobi told MCV.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), along with DCR and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), manages one of the cleanest, least treated drinking water supplies in the nation if not the world. The system is that way because the state has exercised considerable control over the watersheds that surround and drain into our primary reservoirs, Quabbin and Wachusett. Even so, the state has allowed considerable public access to the land that surrounds these resources. For decades this has represented a win/win for our state.
Unlike the Memorial Drive decision, the Draft Public Access Management Plan provides an abundance of information regarding the watershed and recreational uses allowed. MCV hopes that both sides can sit down and work out a compromise that accommodates those who cannot access these lands without the assistance of a motorized vehicle, while still reducing vehicle use to the general public.
More on the Governor’s Budget Proposal
As reported here, Governor Healey proposed a much-needed $22 million increase in DCR’s operating budget for FY24, perhaps the most significant increase ever in the Parks and Recreation Operations Account (2810-0100). This week, the DCR Stewardship Council Finance Committee met with DCR’s budget office to discuss the agency’s plans for that proposed increase. Approximately $14 million will be used to stop the practice of borrowing money each year to pay DCR full-time employees and yearly maintenance. This practice began with the recession of 2009, and we applaud the Governor for taking this step. Full-time staff and ordinary year-to-year maintenance expenses must be paid from yearly tax dollars, not borrowed money. We hope that the $14 million moved to the operations side will be backfilled on the capital funding side so DCR can continue to make headway on its staggering $1.0 billion deferred maintenance backlog.
DCR’s willingness to share its plans with the Stewardship Council and the public (below) is a welcome step and one we hope will continue. Now it’s up to us to notify our elected representatives to support their efforts.
Doug Pizzi is the Executive Director of MCV