Commonwealth Connections

Begun in 1999, the initiative was designed to create "a coordinated greenway and trail network that will help conserve important resources, provide recreation and alternative transportation opportunities close to where people live, and connect communities throughout Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts DCR contributes to the Commonwealth Connections program by enabling trails projects through providing town agencies and non-profit organizations with information, education, training, and matching grants.

This strategy emphasizes increased protection and maintenance of the 600 miles (970 km) of existing long-distance trails in the state of Massachusetts which would serve as "spines" for further and more extensive greenway development.

(The goal of securing these east-west corridor trail elements by 2003 was recently met by the development and extension of several rails-to-trails projects in the east, west, and central parts of the state).

Strategies here include forging agreements that would make use of electric, gas, road, and rail right-of-ways as potential linear greenway routes, especially in areas where existing development has isolated open space parcels.

This strategy would involve working with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to identify and transfer surplus utility corridors to towns and cities for the use of greenways at no cost.

This strategy would involve the creation of a "public clearinghouse" of resources: human, technical, and financial; engage in outreach and support initiatives geared toward helping local greenway development efforts; and establish a flow of information between various state, federal, non-profit, and private entities with the aim of increasing overall efficacy.

The Connecticut River Valley region includes an area from the eastern front of the Berkshires east to western Worcester County.

Initiatives in this region would include the protection of unused Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority corridors for future conversion via rails-to trails programs; the protection of water quality, natural resources and recreational opportunities along major riverways such as the Merrimack River, Shawsheen River, and Ipswich River; creation of a Great Marsh Coastal Greenway linking the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and Crane Beach; creation of bicycle and pedestrian corridors along Route 22 and Route 133, which would link now isolated scenic areas in the towns of Wenham, Hamilton, Manchester, Beverly, Essex, and Ipswich, Massachusetts; and the completion of the part of the Bay Circuit Trail which passes through the region.