December 16, 2022
Dear Governor-Elect Healey:
We, the undersigned climate activists collaborating in the Trees as a Public Good Network, offer our sincerest congratulations on your election victory. We feel assured our Commonwealth will be all the better for your presence at the helm of government.
We are writing about implementation of the Healey climate plan, with a particular focus on forest and tree canopy preservation as crucial elements in protecting the climate, our waters, and wildlife habitat.
We strongly support several key points to which you committed during the campaign:
-Temporary moratorium on commercial harvesting on our state-owned public lands, which will support forest recovery from years of ill-conceived logging;
-Science-based state forest management plan that works to establish carbon and biodiversity reserves on state-owned lands;
-Removal of biomass subsidies from the Alternative Portfolio Standard.
We also urge you to expand on these plans, particularly in the areas of:
-Protecting mature forests;
-Protecting mature municipal trees;
-Environmentally responsible siting of solar panels.
We strongly recommend that you establish a permanent advisory board of independent climate scientists and community-based climate activists to assure that all statewide policies appropriately address climate goals and the public interest, including forest and tree preservation. We respectfully ask that at least one representative from our network serve on that advisory board.
We are also available to provide additional input or information on these issues and to support your climate action plan as an urgent, essential goal of your new administration. The Trees as a Public Good Network can be reached at TreesPublicGood@gmail.com .
Signatures
Groups and Individuals will be listed here.
Cc: Gina McCarthy and Lizzi Weyant, Co-Chairs, Transition Committee on Climate Readiness, Resiliency, and Adaptation
