top of page
Search

TAKE ACTION: A Wilder Future For Massachusetts State Lands

Comments due starting October 16. Join our allies at Save MA Forests, RESTORE: The North Woods, and MA Sierra Club in speaking up during three key opportunities for Massachusetts public forests


Comments are due October 16 on plans to log in Massachusetts Watershed Lands, including around Wachusett Reservoir, pictured here. Plus, submit testimony by October 21 in support of bills that would permanently protect these public forests. Photo: Celeste Venolia
Comments are due October 16 on plans to log in Massachusetts Watershed Lands, including around Wachusett Reservoir, pictured here. Plus, submit testimony by October 21 in support of bills that would permanently protect these public forests. Photo: Celeste Venolia

Did you know that only about 12% of the Bay State is state or federal public land, including about 10% managed by the State of Massachusetts? And that currently, not a single acre of Massachusetts State Land is permanently protected as a wildland or ecological reserve?


Massachusetts state lands comprise many of the largest intact and potentially wild tracts of forest in Southern New England. This month, we have three excellent opportunities to make sure these lands are managed in the highest good — by speaking up for two Wildlands Bills, and by filing comments on watershed logging proposals and "Resource Management Plans" for a complex of 11 State Parks and State Forests in Central Massachusetts. This is your last chance to weigh in and help protect many of these places for clean water, wildlife, and quiet recreation.


Here is a guide to help you submit comments and testimony:


Action #1: Proposed Logging Projects in the Quabbin, Wachusett, and Ware River Reservoir watersheds -- Comments due October 16


Hikers make their way through a maturing forest on MA watershed lands. Photo: Sayali Daware
Hikers make their way through a maturing forest on MA watershed lands. Photo: Sayali Daware

The Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation Division of Water Supply Protection (DWSP) has proposed about 1,200 acres of public forests in the Quabbin, Wachusett, and Ware watersheds in Fiscal Year 2026. There is no need to be logging New England's precious public lands, particularly not the public forests that protect the drinking water supply to nearly 3 million Massachusetts residents. We're calling on the DWSP to cancel plans to log on watershed lands, at least until the State implements permanent reserves and the recommendations of the Climate Forestry Committee, as it has committed to do.





Action #2: Proposed Resource Management Plans for the "Erving Complex" -- Comments due October 18


The Erving Complex is a collection of 11 State Parks and State Forests in North Central Massachusetts, stretching from near the Quabbin Reservoir to the New Hampshire border and forming a backbone of one of the region's most important forest blocks and wildlife corridors.


The Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is putting the cart before the horse by proposing "Resource Management Plans" (RMPs) for the Erving Complex that lay the groundwork for future logging before developing the Forest Resource Management Plans that these RMPs should be based on, and before implementing the recommendations that they committed to from the Massachusetts Climate Forestry Committee.



And click here (scroll down to “Erving Complex") to read the full proposed RMPs for each of the 11 units of public land included in the Erving Complex.


Action #3: Support the Massachusetts Wildlands Bills -- Written Testimony Due October 21


On October 7, the Massachusetts General Assembly held a hearing on H. 952 and H. 953, two bills that together would permanently protect about 412,000 acres of Massachusetts State Lands as ecological reserves, or wildlands. These bills are the result of years of tireless advocacy by Save Massachusetts Forests, RESTORE: The North Woods, Massachusetts Sierra Club, and many other advocates and organizations. We encourage you to check out these fact sheets from RESTORE, Save Mass Forests, and allies on H. 952 (which protects 100,000 acres of watershed lands) and H. 953 (which protects 312,000 acres of Dept. of Conservation and Recreation lands) before submitting testimony in support of these bills. You can also check out the Save Mass Forests website for more information and context on the years of organizing that has gone into getting these bills to where they are today.


Your testimony can be brief and to the point — feel free to focus on the reasons for public wildlands protection that speak to you most, whether that be climate mitigation, clean water, or the mental and spiritual necessity of wild places. If you are a Massachusetts resident, be sure to identify that, and please note any specific connections you have to State Parks, State Forests, or Watershed lands that would be protected by these bills.


Send your testimony in support of these bills, with the subject line "Testimony re: H.952 and H.953," to the following emails by October 21:



Thanks for taking action for wild public lands!







bottom of page