Restoration advocates press for faster salt‑marsh repairs and to explore 'blue carbon' funding

Witnesses from Mass Audubon, The Trustees of Reservations, The Nature Conservancy and the Division of Ecological Restoration told lawmakers that accelerating salt‑marsh restoration is central to the state’s resilience strategy and could be financed partly through emerging blue‑carbon markets.

Restoration practitioners described a growing backlog of projects and said high permitting costs and long Chapter 91 or MEPA processes often delay work that provides immediate flood protection and biodiversity benefits.

"Salt marshes are our front line of defense against coastal flooding and they sequester carbon at a high rate," said a conservation representative. "If we can reduce the permitting burden and put money into multi‑year restoration programs, we can both protect communities and advance carbon sequestration."

The administration said it has hired a blue‑carbon program director and is studying whether carbon markets could provide another revenue source for marsh restoration. Witnesses welcomed the study but urged lawmakers to couple any market effort with public funding and clear permitting relief for restoration work.

Restoration groups asked the committee to adopt language that would explicitly exempt certain low‑impact restoration activities from Chapter 91 requirements or to fast‑track a general permit tailored for ecological restoration rather than for development projects. They cited House Bill 1052 / Senate 557 (Act Accelerating Wetland Restoration) as a bipartisan template the committee could use.

Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said they were willing to work with practitioners to design a restoration‑specific permitting pathway but cautioned that some statutory changes and interagency rule work would be required.