Tag: Blog Post

Massachusetts parks have a historic legacy worth saving

June 1, 2021June 1, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

Massachusetts parks have a historic legacy worth saving One of the critical lessons this pandemic has taught us is that our open spaces, particularly public open spaces, are critical to our physical and mental health. From early on and continuing through the worst of COVID-19’s impact, writer after writer after writer from across the nation extolled the virtues of our great outdoor spaces. This was particularly true for people who live in more densely populated cities and suburbs. Closer to home, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) kept everything it could safely keep open available to the public, even as other states and non-profits closed their parks. The result was that our forests, parks and beaches became even more of a refuge to the public, with some DCR facilities seeing upwards of a 300 percent increase in use. In order to cope with what can only be described as an onslaught, DCR developed real time communications tools to let people...

DCR Special Commission Holds Third Meeting

May 29, 2021May 29, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

DCR Special Commission Holds Third Meeting The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Special Commission held its third meeting this week. Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, became the second appointed "Friends" commissioner. Karen is a leading figure in the struggle to reclaim the lost acres of Franklin Park, an ongoing, uphill, and important fight for those of us who love Franklin Park and the Olmsted legacy. She's a solid addition to the Commission. After a slow start, the Commission seems to be getting its footing while the UMass Donahue Institute appears more in control of its information and schedule. Meetings now follow a theme with a DCR presentation and a Donahue Institute analysis. Notable decisions: While the close of the public comment period remains June 8th, the Commission's work has been extended through August, which is a welcome decision and one supported by advocates and Commission members alike. The schedule does not include a public comment period for the Draft Report, an...

A Walk in the Woods – Early Spring

May 26, 2021May 26, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

This is the second of a continuing series of Profiles that paint a picture of who we are and the public lands and resources we have cared for every day and have for generations. The first profile is available here. A Walk in the Woods - Early Spring By Patricia Bergeron “I get no kick from champagne,” Cole Porter famously wrote, although friends of the songwriter would probably doubt that claim. This verse is more to the point: “I get no kick in a planeFlying too highWith some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do…” Even in this nearly-post-pandemic, almost-universally-vaccinated year, you can skip the plane ticket and still experience the novelty, beauty and fascination of a different place. You won’t need a passport, and the experience is sure to enhance your physical and mental well-being. Plus, it might be less than a tank of gas away. Here is a brief guide to one such destination, Willard Brook State Forest, a 2,597-acre...

MOSES: Attend Next Week’s Public Listening Session

May 21, 2021May 21, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

MOSES: Attend Next Week's Special Commission Public Listening Session Dear Massachusetts Conservation Voters and Supporters, I would like to introduce myself; I am Joe Dorant, former President of the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientist (MOSES). For those who don’t know, MOSES is a labor union who represents over 3,330 scientists and engineers that work for the State of Massachusetts. Over 2,000 of our members work at DCR and MassDOT. I was president of MOSES for 14 years but still work for the organization. I want to make you aware of something that is taking place now, as a result of a legislative action that took place back in 2019. You may have heard that the legislature established a DCR Special Commission to look at improving the management, operations, and asset conditions at the DCR. Language establishing the Commission was introduced in an outside section of the FY20 budget. Due to COVID, the commissioners were only appointed recently and held their first...

MCV’s Recommendations to the DCR Special Commission

May 17, 2021July 27, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

updated July 27, 2021 MCV's Recommendations to the DCR Special Commission By Chuck Anastas, Doug Pizzi and the MCV Board of Directors Massachusetts Conservation Voters’ (MCV) sees DCR’s and the DCR Stewardship Council’s work as crucial to the public’s health and welfare. Furthermore, DCR’s stewardship enhances the natural, historical, cultural, and recreational resources we depend on, while supporting the outdoor industry. Outdoor activity in turn supports more than 113,000 jobs and contributes $10.5 billion in annual revenue to our economy. And yet, the FY21 general revenue share of the DCR budget was $3 million less than it was in 2009. While at the same time, the overall state budget saw an increase of $18 billion. When a public agency is starved of needed funds, its performance falters, putting the public’s confidence at stake. In a slow downward spiral the agency plays a game of whack-a-mole, attending to emergencies rather than moving forward with strategic improvements in its service to the public. It results in bad public policy...

The Great Revere Beach Heist

May 6, 2021June 4, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

The Great Revere Beach Heist Landscape architect Charles Eliot never envisioned Revere Beach, our nation’s first public beach, being out of public reach By Doug Pizzi "I want to report a robbery." - "What was stolen?" "A mile-and-a-half of public land." - "Where?" "Revere Beach Boulevard." Let me explain. It is a decades long story of unintended consequences. Despite recent increases in its Parks and Recreation Operations budget, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) remains under immense pressure from the Governor and Legislature to increase user fees to fund the agency’s stewardship of 450,000 acres of public land, our land. To meet these demands, DCR has begun charging for public parking by installing meters on agency-controlled parkways in Revere and Cambridge. Other meters on DCR parkways in Boston and Watertown may follow. Last October DCR held virtual public meetings and to no one’s surprise, most opposed the meters. DCR moved forward in April anyway, installing the meters on Memorial Drive in Cambridge and Revere Beach Boulevard,...

MCV Parks Survey

April 21, 2021April 21, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

Massachusetts Conservation Voters Parks Survey As part of MCV's Earth Week activities this year, we are asking you to identify your favorite park and tell us what's important to you and what maintenance and improvements are needed. As we see the beginning of the end of the pandemic, we must remember how essential our parks were to our physical and mental health over the past 12 months. This is the time to assess our state park needs and work to make them even better. Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. Your feedback today will help define the future of Massachusetts state parks. Remember, the park you save may be your own. Thank you!...

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

April 12, 2021April 29, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

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...

DCR Special Commission to Meet March 15

March 12, 2021March 12, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

Special Commission to Meet March 15 Meeting of DCR Special Commission an opportunity to make your voice heard. The first meeting of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Special Commission is on Monday, March 15, 2021, at 1:00pm. The state Legislature created the commission in 2019 to examine all DCR operations statewide and make recommendations as to how to make the agency carry out its mission in the most efficient way. Special Commission meetings are scheduled for once a month through June. Current funding ends in June but may resume later in the year if the Legislature provides funding in the FY22 budget. That process is now under way and monthly meeting dates will be confirmed at the first meeting. To attend Monday's remote meeting and view the agenda, click here. The Special Commission’s work is of vital concern to MCV, its members, park visitors, and our state’s $16 billion annual outdoor economy. Recommendations that come from the Commission will frame DCR’s priorities...

DCR Employment

March 8, 2021March 8, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation employment opportunities Find out about year-round and seasonal jobs at Massachusetts state parks. For more info, visit: https://www.mass.gov/dcr-employment/....

The DCR Retained Revenue Account is Slowly Supplanting Operating Funds

February 10, 2021February 10, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

The DCR Retained Revenue Account is Slowly Supplanting Operating Funds By Doug Pizzi | February 10, 2021 Thanks to Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Stewardship Council Chairman Nate Walton, the Stewardship Council Finance Subcommittee, and state DCR finance staff for a detailed presentation on DCR’s retained revenue account at the council’s January meeting. A special thanks to DCR’s Lisa Barstow for providing a recording of the session now seen on our website. It turns out there is a lot to the retained revenue account, and it is a lot for DCR to manage every year. First, DCR must spend a lot of staff time and effort, too much time and effort in our opinion, chasing an ever increasing, unrealistic revenue target the Legislature and Administration throw at the agency. In the vernacular, we call it moving the goalposts. That staff time would be better spent maintaining and improving current facilities. Second, as it is with most state spending accounts, any money DCR...

DCR Retained Revenue Account needs examination, explanation

January 10, 2021January 10, 2021 by admin Comment Closed

DCR Retained Revenue Account needs examination, explanation By Doug Pizzi | January 10, 2021 If you have been following the MCV blog and our work, you know we are concerned that the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) annual budget relies too heavily on fees. It is not too much to expect that when our tax dollars buy park and forest land that we have affordable access to that land. However, in an ongoing attempt to recover from massive budget cuts going back to the 2008 recession, DCR has been pressured to increase fees, which go into the Retained Revenue Account (Line Item 2810-2042), to meet its budgetary needs. Until this fiscal year, the Legislature and Governor have consistently pushed DCR to raise more and more revenue to supplement tax dollars to run its day-to-day operation. This has included increasing fees where they already existed and instituting new fees where they had not existed. The Governor’s pre-pandemic FY21 budget called on DCR...

A Park Grows in Dorchester, Again

December 14, 2020December 14, 2020 by admin Comment Closed

This is the first of a continuing series of Profiles that paint a picture of who we are and the public lands and resources we have cared for every day and have for generations. A Park Grows in Dorchester, Again By Patricia Bergeron At the intersection of Adams and Bowdoin streets in Dorchester’s Meetinghouse Hill neighborhood is a small kidney-shaped area of unkempt grass, a few trees, and a disconnected three-tier fountain dwarfed by the large basin in which it sits. The basin is the sole remnant of the Lyman Fountain, once a Victorian tourist attraction, later damaged and replaced by the smaller fountain, which was ultimately disconnected in the early 1970’s for lack of funding and, to be frank, lack of interest to keep it operating. Welcome to Coppens Square Park. Like many neglected urban parks, Coppens Square is not much to look at. But the story of the park and its stakeholders is one of persistence. It is a story about the...

November Blog: Conference Committee Fully Funds DCR Parks

December 4, 2020December 4, 2020 by admin Comment Closed

FY 2021 State Budget Conference Committee fully funds DCR Parks and Recreation Operations We at Mass Conservation Voters want to send a big thank you to everyone who contacted legislators on the Commonwealth’s FY 2021 Conference Committee Budget. All of our efforts paid off and then some. The Conference Committee released its budget on Dec. 3rd and is proposing $51.5 million for the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) Parks and Recreation Operations Account (line 2810-0100). That’s $1.1 million more than the House Budget figure we asked you to support. From here the budget, which covers spending for the balance of FY 2021 through June 30th of next year, will go to both chambers for final approval and then to Gov. Baker for his approval. When the pandemic hit last spring, and our open parks and forests represented one of the few activities that could get us outdoors safely, DCR admirably handled triple digit increases in use. This proved beyond all doubt that our...

MCV Action Alert: Support a $2.3 Million Increase in DCR Ops. Budget

November 30, 2020November 30, 2020 by admin Comment Closed

MCV Action Alert: Support a $2.3 Million Increase in DCR's Operations Account (Line Item: 2810-0100) The time to act is now for our parks and forests! The Budget Conference Committee members are meeting on the FY21 budget. Now is the time to advocate for the House version of the budget, which included a $2.3 million increase in DCR’s operations account (Line Item 2810-0100). The members of the Conference Committee are: Representative Aaron Michlewitz, Chair, House Ways and Means Committee (Phone: 617-722-2990)Representative Denise Garlick, Vice Chair, House Ways and Means Committee (Phone: 617-722-2380)Representative Todd Smola, ranking Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee (Phone: 617-722-2100)Senator Michael Rodrigues, Chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee (Phone: 617-722-1114)Senator Cindy Friedman, Vice-Chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee (Phone: 617-722-1432)Senator Patrick O’Connor, ranking Republican member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee (Phone: 617-722-1646) Take action: call the Conference Committee members using the numbers above today, don't wait! Ask members to support the House figure of $50.4 million for...