The Massachusetts State Land Conservation Plan is the most comprehensive statewide vision for land conservation.  This plan was developed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, in consultation with other public agencies and environmental organizations.  It prioritizes potential conservation land with a ranking from 1 – 8 (highest priority), based on the participating organizations’ assessment of the ecological, agricultural, hydrological, and recreational value of various areas. 

In order to provide a comprehensive statewide roadmap for land conservation, the Commonwealth should update the existing Plan or create a new one, complete with a detailed implementation strategy.  The completed Plan will prioritize sensitive lands that need to be acquired to protect watersheds and provide open space to areas with limited access.  One aspect of the Plan should be a usable tool, such as a map clearly identifying priority lands, available to all state, regional and local planning officials, to inform their decisions on what to protect and how.

Such an effort will benefit from the robust datasets that the state already has for priority habitats, water resources, protected open space, and other environmental resources.  Unfortunately, similarly detailed data are not readily available for agricultural resources in the state.  There is no comprehensive inventory of farms and agricultural enterprises, land in agricultural use, prime agricultural soils, and other elements of the state’s food system.  This information should be compiled so that agricultural resources can be fully integrated into statewide and regional open space planning. 

1.a    The Department of Conservation should lead a new effort to update the State Land Conservation Plan

1.b    The Department of Agricultural Resources should develop a statewide inventory of agricultural resources

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