AMC Outdoors, April 2008
Groups join to raise funds for environmental projects.
Established in 1978, the Cape Cod Rail Trail snakes through sections of awe-inspiring greenery. Heightening this experience for the 400,000 walkers, joggers, bikers, and horseback riders drawn to this stretch annually are recent improvements partially paid for by a state initiative—granted more than five years ago.
Native plant species were added to improve wildlife habitat and complement the newly paved and widened 22-mile trail. New signs were also installed during the project’s two phases, completed last summer. With a price tag of $7.4 million, the project received $1 million from the 2002 Massachusetts Environmental Bond, which has funded 76 environmental projects in the Bay State to date.
Since the bond’s $707 million fund is nearly exhausted, groups are urging the passage of a new bill to fund critical conservation initiatives for the next five years.
The Coalition for the Environmental Bond includes 200-plus members—from AMC to sportsmen’s organizations to land trusts. The coalition is urging the state legislature to approve the $1.51 billion green bill, the largest in state history. Drafted by the Massachusetts governor’s office, the bond is similar to a line of credit that permits the state to borrow a certain amount of money from investors. The dollars may then be used for specific purposes: land, water, and air quality enhancements; wetlands restoration; pollution reduction; land acquisitions; and capital improvements to forest and park systems, to name a few.
“If [the state] does not have the funds to carry out these programs of protection and management, then we will start to see a loss of the ecological value of these resources,” says Mike Gildesgame, AMC’s southern New England policy manager.
AMC drafted a support letter for the bill and was asked by the governor’s office to comment on the allotment of funds. In the new bill, current draft language includes a number of general line items to be funded, notes Gildesgame. For example, instead of funneling a specific amount to repair a floodwall in Hull, the bill would call for flood protection of coastal resources, he says.
While the language gives the state flexibility, “it does not commit the executive office or agencies to specific projects that are of concern to AMC or other organizations,” Gildesgame says. “One of the roles of the coalition [and residents] is to contact legislators and say, ‘We really think there should be specific language for X.’”
The legislature has until July to pass the bill in this session. Failure to do so would delay the bill’s voting—and possible funding of projects—until the 2009-2010 legislative session.
-By Fred Durso, Jr.
Join AMC's Conservation Action Network to receive updates on the bond bill. Also visit the coalition's website.
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