INFLUENCE the 2025 Environmental Bond Bill:
Expand Urban Tree Canopy & Create Forever-Wild Forest Reserves!
(“I’m Just a Bill,” Schoolhouse Rock!, March 27, 1976)
Right now, the Healey Administration is drafting the Environmental Bond Bill. We expect this important piece of state legislation to be one of the first bills to be taken up by the MA State Legislature. The bill designates billions of dollars in funding for environmental programs and efforts in the Commonwealth for the next five years.
Please help us make sure that the Environmental Bond Bill includes much-needed funding to protect and expand urban tree canopies and to establish public forests as forever-wild reserves, with no logging allowed.
Click here to send an email to Governor Healey and the leadership of the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) asking them to include funding for the Municipal Reforestation Program and funding for Forever-Wild Forest Reserves.
WHY DO URBAN TREES MATTER?
Urban trees reduce heat and air pollution; absorb stormwater and reduce flooding; remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere for free; provide habitat for biodiversity, and much more. But we are losing urban trees across Massachusetts at an alarming rate.
Nobel Prize–winning climate scientist William Moomaw as well as other scientists show us that large urban trees provide far more of these eco-services than small trees. It would require over 400 saplings to replace the eco-services provided by a single large oak tree! Not only is it impossible to plant replacement trees at such a ratio in towns and cities, but newly planted trees have a high mortality rate. We need to protect our existing large trees, plant trees in communities that do not have them, and prioritize care of current trees.
The Municipal Reforestation Program—proposed by state legislators Cindy Creem, Steve Owen and Jennifer Armini in 2021 and 2023—would protect and expand urban tree canopies across Massachusetts. But despite widespread support from voters, climate advocates, and legislators, this program has failed to become law due to a lack of financial support.
Click here to urge Governor Healey and EEA officials to include $100 million in the 2025 Environmental Bond Bill to fund the Municipal Reforestation Program and increase protections for existing trees.
WHY SHOULD FORESTS BE FOREVER WILD?
Forests create our livable climate, help reverse climate change, and lessen the impact of existing climate dangers. Forests regulate rainfall, reducing droughts and flooding and purifying drinking water sources. Forests reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, maintain human-friendly air temperatures, and support biodiversity. But we are losing forests across Massachusetts, New England, and the US at alarming rates.
Climate scientists Richard Birdsey, William Moomaw, and Lucy Hutyra, among others, show us that preserving our Massachusetts forests are crucial to meeting 2050 state-mandated climate goals. Clearcutting and harvesting our forests undermines their resilience and eco-services. We need to protect existing forest ecosystems, setting aside 30% of Commonwealth lands by 2030—and certainly all public forests—as forever-wild reserves that are never logged.
Click here to urge Governor Healey and EEA officials to include $250 million in the 2025 Environmental Bond Bill to fund establishing our public forests as forever-wild reserves.
We need your help to fund urban tree and forest protections!
NOT A LOT OF TIME?
Click here to send an email to Governor Healey and EEA officials. Tell them that you want them to fund $100 million for the Municipal Reforestation Program and $250 million for Forever-Wild Forest Reserves.
Thank you! Your voice makes a difference!
HAVE TIME & ENERGY TO DIG IN?
Please join us! We meet twice a month via Zoom to plan legislative means to protect trees, at both the state and local levels, and to discuss what actions can be taken to address specific forests and trees under threat.
To get the Zoom link and join the TreesPG Network, please fill out the short form here: https://tinyurl.com/join-TreesPG. Next online meeting: Dec 5 @ 7 pm
You can learn more about us here: https://ourrevolutionma.com/trees-as-a-public-good/. Email us at TreesPublicGood@gmail.com.
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