A Massachusetts state agency has released a five-year plan for preserving nature in the region, aiming to double its land protection efforts and implement restoration activities in water ecosystems by 2030.
In its 2025-30 strategy, the state’s Department of Fish and Game (DFG) identified key priorities to reverse nature loss in Massachusetts, alongside conservation goals for 2030, 2040, and 2050.
The agency committed to protecting around 2,400 hectares per year by 2030, up from a current annual average of 1,200 ha, while ensuring that at least 70% of the protected lands are forested.
The final goal is to support Massachusetts’ commitment to conserving 40% of its land by 2050, the document said.
Additionally, the DFG will expand river and wetland restoration efforts, in a bid to restore habitat connectivity and promote carbon storage and sequestration.
According to the document, the agency seeks to “protect, restore, and/or reconnect” around 1,200 ha of floodplain habitat to one another and to adjacent uplands, waterways, and wetlands.
DFG also plans to demolish six dams identified “in poor or unsafe conditions” to restore connectivity and high-priority habitats. Massachusetts has over 3,000 dams, the fifth-highest number per mile out of the US states.
“As climate change alters environmental conditions significantly faster than previously experienced, it can be difficult for species and ecosystems to keep pace,” the document said.
“To help species and systems adjust, the department will restore and reconnect aquatic systems – including floodplains, freshwater and tidal wetlands, and inland and coastal streams – to enhance migration opportunities and access to suitable habitats, improve ecosystem functions, allow tidal exchange, and improve fish passage.”
DFG also committed to increasing by 50% the number of restored ha of eelgrass, and enrolling up to 2,600 ha of salt marshes into a new Blue Carbon Incentives Programme to support carbon sequestration and coastal resilience.
“This plan reflects our agency’s commitment to respond with urgency to the most pressing challenges of today: unprecedented biodiversity loss, the climate crisis, and persistent environmental injustice,” DFG’s commissioner Tom O’Shea said in a statement.
Massachusetts is home to over 1.2 million ha of forest, more than 12,800 kilometres of rivers, almost 2,500 km of coastline, around 6,500 sq. km of ocean waters, over 18,000 ha of salt marsh, and more than 18,000 species, the report said.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
*** Click here to sign up to our twice-weekly biodiversity newsletter ***
