Mass Parks for All, our vision for a 21st Century state park system
Doug Pizzi | September 25, 2023
If you follow this space you know that on May 11, Mass Conservation Voters (MCV) unveiled our newly named 501(C)(3) charitable corporation, Mass Parks for All (MPA). More than 100 people joined us for this event, including then newly appointed Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Brian Arrigo, who gave the keynote address, as well as state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, and state Rep. Ruth Balser, who we honored for their extraordinary legislative leadership in passing the Public Lands Preservation Act.
Whether you were able to join us or not, we thank all who encouraged and supported the creation of our new charitable corporation at MCV, which shall continue to be the name on the 501(C)(4) political action side of the aisle.
As of July 1, yours truly moved over from MCV to be the executive director of MPA, now the public face of our organization. MPA seeks to renew, expand, and connect our commonwealth’s public lands, which, up until about three years ago, received the fewest public dollars per capita of any state in the nation (P51). Massachusetts, where the idea that is the United States of America began, and home to too many firsts to list here, is not used to being last in anything. Nor should we accept that lowly status.
It was partly due to this revelation, unveiled by the Special Legislative Commission on DCR, that MCV began to lay the groundwork to create MPA as the next step in our evolution. The overarching mission is to support our state parks in general and DCR’s stewardship over them in particular. As part of that, MPA wants to help park friends groups and other stakeholders, who have labored long in the trenches, become a more unified, effective voice for these essential historic, cultural, environmentally significant assets.
Meanwhile, a confluence of circumstances told us we were heading in the right direction. These included the pandemic-induced increased use of, hence support for, state parks, as the public and state government realized how much we need these gems for our physical and mental wellbeing. The Special Legislative Commission created by Sen. Will Brownsberger, delayed a year by the pandemic, took a comprehensive look at DCR. This included what it had done right, what it had done wrong, and what it could not do at all because it lost millions of dollars in operating funds, including 300 positions, to Great Recession induced budget cuts.
Other factors included a reconstituted DCR Stewardship Council under current chairman Jack Buckley, appointed to the council after a distinguished career at MassWildlife. Created in 2004 to oversee the park agencies merger that created DCR, Buckley has raised the council’s profile in public and within state government. Finally, the Healey-Driscoll Administration in its first budget (FY2024) proposed the largest DCR operations account budget increase ever to a state Legislature that was more than willing to listen, and appointed Arrigo, the former mayor of Revere, who hit the ground running and continues to work tirelessly to advance the agency.
So here we are, hopefully moving into a sustained effort to make our state parks something we can all be proud of, to finally fulfill the 2004 promise of a well-funded, more efficient, accessible, connected, beloved state park system we deserve. I look forward to the challenge ahead and hope you continue to support us in this endeavor, because the park you save may be your own.
Doug Pizzi is executive director of Mass Parks for All.