Lawmakers and Advocates Debate Forest Reserves, Watershed Protection and a Natural-and-Working-Lands Package

State legislators and dozens of witnesses spent more than two hours on competing proposals to expand permanent protections for Massachusetts’ public forests and to promote municipal tree planting.

Representative Joan Moschino (testifying on H.1005, companion S.549) framed natural-and-working-lands legislation as part of the Commonwealth’s decarbonization roadmap and urged the committee to report the bill favorably. Supporters said a package of bills, including H.952 and H.953 (forest and watershed protection), would add large tracts of state land to permanent reserve status and that H.1013 / S.553 would establish a municipal reforestation trust to help towns expand canopy, particularly in environmental‑justice neighborhoods.

The bills would change how state-owned lands are managed and would create new state-level incentives and funds for tree planting and for keeping forested lands intact. Proponents—environmental groups, town climate committees, watershed and conservation organizations, and several scientists—argued that protecting and expanding forests is an essential and…