Boston Harbor Now was grateful for the opportunity to testify with the Stone Living Lab in support of legislation in support of permitting reforms necessary to expedite the permitting of nature-based research and demonstration projects. The two identical bills, H.971 and S.558, An Act establishing a pilot program for nature-based solutions to climate change, propose to give state permitting agencies the ability to respond to the climate crisis with both flexibility and urgency to increasingly rely on nature-based climate resilience projects to protect communities from climate change impacts.
Katherine Dafforn of the Stone Living Lab and Linda Orel from Boston Harbor Now testified this week before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources alongside two of the bill’s chief sponsors, Senator Brendan Crighton and Representative Sean Garballey. Along with the third chief sponsor, Representative Dan Hunt, the legislators’ strong support and leadership have brought this critical issue to the forefront and carried these bills close to enactment last session. With a successful hearing behind us, Boston Harbor Now and Stone Living Lab look forward to working with all three legislative champions to advance this bill.
Securing permits to design and implement nature-based research and demonstration projects quickly and efficiently is critical, as the climate crisis has brought more frequent and intense storms and sea level rise to Massachusetts’ coastal communities. Nature-based approaches are designed to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems to address climate change impacts, providing benefits for people and the environment. These approaches may include living shorelines, living seawalls, offshore reefs and other innovations that mimic natural systems and help communities adapt to climate change while providing ecological, social, and economic benefits while maintaining and improving public access.
We look forward to working with the bill’s sponsors and cosponsors as well as our partners to bring these bills across the finish line before the end of the legislative session (July 2026) and to Governor Healey’s desk for enactment.
To read more about our testimony and this legislation, please see the comment letter submitted by Boston Harbor Now and our partners at the New England Aquarium, Mass Audubon, The Trustees of Reservations, Conservation Law Foundation, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, and Charles River Watershed Association.
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