Monday, November 26, 2007

The Crumbling of MA State Parks

November 19, 2007 – The unfinished roof on a barn on Brookwood Farm, part of the Blue Hills Reservation, in East Milton, MA, exhibits the inability of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), due to increasingly low budgets, to maintain Massachusetts state parks. Additional repairs are needed on several broken windows, its rotting foundation, and its peeling and fading red paint. Former MA Governor Mitt Romney bequeathed current Governor Deval Patrick with an overwhelmingly large deficit causing Patrick to cut the operating budget of the DCR at the expense of the land.

November 19, 2007 – Behind the Houghton Pond visitor center on the Blue Hills Reservation, a state park in East Milton, MA, which is maintained by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), trash is scattered along the banks of the water, coexisting with the wildlife as part of the ecosystem the state is supposed to care for. Due to a significantly low budget, the DCR is unable to fix such vital issues.

November 19, 2007 – Massachusetts’s state park employees exhibit concern about erosion and fallen trees on hiking trails that run throughout the Blue Hill Reservation in East Milton, MA. Trails are unable to be maintained to the extent they should be due to understaffing caused by the low budget of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, a problem that has its roots in former Governor Mitt Romney’s administration.

November 19, 2007 – Don McCasland, an employee at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory Science Center, explains past efforts to remove graffiti from the top of Eliot Tower on Blue Hill, part of the Blue Hill Reservation, a state park in East Milton, MA. He mentions that due to their significantly low budget they were only able to repaint park benches and trashcans, leaving many existing problems behind.

November 19, 2007 – Despite past efforts to remove graffiti from Eliot Tower on Blue Hill, near the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory Science Center, part of the Blue Hill Reservation, a state park in East Milton, MA, there are still countless visible marks of vandalism remaining. The administration of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has left current Governor Deval Patrick with a $1.3 billion budget deficit, making it very difficult to improve the conditions of state parks to the necessary extent.

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