Assessment
The Natural and Working Lands (NWL) sector is crucial for offsetting residual emissions as part of the 2050 net-zero target. The NWL sector is currently on track to meet 2025 goals for net carbon sequestration and permanent protection of 28% of Massachusetts land area. However, interventions are needed to slow, stop, and reverse NWL loss and to permanently conserve 30% of Massachusetts land area by 2030 and 40% by 2050. Despite land conservation efforts, Massachusetts continues to lose several thousand acres of NWL, particularly forests, each year, threatening the essential role of these lands as a net carbon sink and provider of other important ecosystem services. Securing consistent funding to double the pace of land conservation and pursuing integrated policies and regulatory actions to balance NWL conservation targets with the state’s housing, energy, and transportation priorities will minimize further loss of the Commonwealth’s NWL. Scaling up efforts to expand urban and riparian tree cover will increase carbon sequestration, mitigate heat hotspots, strengthen river and stream banks, and increase water uptake to lower the impacts of extreme precipitation. Programs like Greening Gateway Cities are planting thousands of trees each year in Environmental Justice (EJ) neighborhoods that are lacking in tree canopy. However, the pace of planting needs to accelerate to reach goals set out in the Clean Energy and Climate Plans (CECPs), ResilientMass Plan, and Resilient Lands Initiative (RLI), and to better support the health and wellbeing of many EJ populations and Massachusetts residents.
| Metrics | 2023 Report Value | 2024 Report Value | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural and working lands conserved, expressed as area and percent of MA | Approximately 27.9% of statewide land area (1.396 million acres) was conserved as of June 2023.[1] | Approximately 28.1% of the statewide land area (1.405 million acres) was conserved as of June 2024. | The CECPs set goals to increase permanent conservation of land and waters to at least 28% of the state by 2025, at least 30% by 2030, and at least 40% by 2050. |
| Natural and working land area and forest land area | NWL accounted for 88% of the state (or 4.576 million acres) in 2021. Forest area, the largest component of NWL and a primary indicator of the state’s carbon storage and sequestration capacity, accounted for 56% (or 2.899 million acres). NWL area declined by 12.5 thousand acres between 2016 and 2021, with losses averaging 2.5 thousand acres per year. Forest land, the largest component of NWL and a primary indicator of the state’s carbon storage and sequestration capacity, declined by 15.2 thousand acres between 2016 and 2021, with losses averaging 3.0 thousand acres per year (some forest was lost to other NWL). | No update – the landcover data used to calculate NWL and forest area has not been updated since 2021 as the U.S. Geological Survey works on an improved landcover data product. The new landcover data will be available to report NWL and forest area for more recent years in next year’s Climate Report Card. | There is currently no target for this metric, but minimizing the loss of NWL is a goal of the CECPs and RLI, and a goal for reducing forest loss will be an outcome of the Forests as Climate Solutions Initiative. |
| Trees planted in urban and EJ neighborhoods | At least 2,728 trees were planted in urban areas through Greening Gateway Cities and other state programs in 2022, with 94% of those trees planted in EJ neighborhoods. Approximately 35,000 trees have been planted in urban areas through the Greening Gateway Cities program between its inception in 2014 and 2022, with 89% of these planted in EJ neighborhoods. | At least 5,504 trees were planted in urban areas through Greening Gateway Cities and other state programs in 2023, with 95% of those trees planted in EJ neighborhoods. At least 5,866 trees were planted in urban areas through Greening Gateway Cities and other state programs in 2024, with 94% of those trees planted in EJ neighborhoods.
| Tree planting efforts advance the CECP and the RLI goals of expanding urban and riparian tree cover by 16,100 acres between 2023 and 2033 and by 64,400 acres between 2023 and 2050.[2] |
[1] These numbers differ slightly from those reported in the 2023 climate report card, reflecting methodological changes. Conserved NWL area (and statewide land area) now includes all land in Massachusetts, including wetlands, but not open waters, as information on the protection status of open waters is less reliable. Both 2023 and 2024 NWL conservation numbers should be considered approximate and will
[2] These acreage goals are not directly convertible to a specific number of trees planted, as tree planting densities vary greatly across different settings, from tens per acre in dense urban environments to hundreds per acre on rural forest land.
Challenges
- Intensified storms and drought, sea level rise, and other climate disturbances can further stress ecosystems and may reduce carbon sequestration capacity. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ (EEA) Forest Carbon Study finds that Massachusetts forests’ carbon uptake capacity will continue through the end of the century but is limited and faces substantial risk and uncertainty from hurricanes and deforestation.
- While permanent conversion of forests leads to carbon emissions as well as a loss of future carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and other benefits, Massachusetts is densely populated with critical needs for housing and clean energy infrastructure. Balancing land use for conservation, housing, and energy and transportation infrastructure is a significant challenge.
- EEA and its agencies have been permanently conserving an average of about 10,000 acres annually over the past five years, but the Commonwealth needs to double the pace of conservation to achieve the conservation goals in the CECPs. Doubling the pace of conservation will require consistent long-term funding for land acquisition, incentives for more privately-owned forests and farms to be protected with conservation restrictions, and full and equitable compensation to hosts of conserved land. There are also challenges in allocating limited conservation funds, where protecting land with the highest conservation value or risk of loss may come at the expense of protecting more acreage.
- Expanding restoration efforts will require increased capacity and resources. This includes workforce and nursery capacity for expanding tree planting.
How we are meeting the moment
- EEA maintains an annual budget of approximately $25 million and is spending more than $50 million in one-time American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for land conservation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program recently awarded $45 million in funding to EEA and MassAudubon to accelerate land conservation across the state in the next 5 years.
- EEA has expended nearly $5 million of separate ARPA funding to support healthy soil practices and conserve farmland.
- As part of the Forests as Climate Solutions Initiative, EEA developed a comprehensive workplan outlining strategies to protect and manage forest lands while prioritizing efforts to address climate change impacts, putting into action the recommendations from scientific experts on the Climate Forestry Committee.
- State lands are incorporating enhanced climate protocols into forest management.
- The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) launched the Climate Stewardship Incentive Program (C-SIP) in 2024 to provide financial incentive for private and municipal forest landowners to carry out stewardship practices focused on soil protection, carbon retention, and increasing forest adaptive capacity. The U.S. Forest Service recently awarded $5 million in funding to DCR to expand the C-SIP program, making more climate-oriented practices eligible for cost-share reimbursements.
- EEA will soon release the Forest Carbon Study, an update to the 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap Study’s Land Sector Report, which finds that the most important action to maintain carbon storage and sequestration levels is to protect forested lands from conversion, including minimizing the land use impacts from development.
- The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities continues to implement the MBTA Communities Law and encourage the construction of housing near public transportation. To date, 116 communities have passed multi-family zoning districts intended to comply with the state’s MBTA Communities law.
- EEA is exploring ways to further limit NWL loss to development through incentives and regulatory actions. Work is underway on the Holistic Land Use Plan called for in the 2050 CECP and the Resilient Lands Initiative to better coordinate development, transportation, land conservation, and energy siting.
- Building upon the success of the Greening the Gateways Cities Program, EEA launched the Cooling Corridors Grant Program to increase tree planting in urban areas subject to heat island effects, and a riparian reforestation program for carbon, cooling, and other ecosystem and cultural benefits. Nine cities in Massachusetts are also ramping up tree planting and maintenance with a total of $23 million in funding from the US Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Grants.
- The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently commissioned a study that provided statewide mapping of wetlands (including high carbon wetlands) and policy recommendations to ensure a no net loss of stored wetland carbon. The agency has also pursued new stormwater and wetland regulations to improve the resiliency of inland and coastal wetlands resources areas and new permitting pathways to increase flood resilience.
- The Department of Fish and Game engaged conservation partners, commercial interests, government, academics, and the public to develop a framework, goals, strategies, and metrics to protect, restore, and sustain biodiversity in the Commonwealth pursuant to Executive Order 618 on Biodiversity Conservation. The agency will kick off a Biodiversity Initiative in early 2025 to finalize and develop a workplan for achieving 2030, 2040, and 2050 conservation goals. These goals will protect and restore natural and working lands for biological diversity, carbon storage, and resilience to climate change.