2022 CFPA Conservation Priorities: State
CFPA has put forward a conservation agenda for Connecticut’s future every year since 1897. Following are CFPA’s top recommendations at the State level for 2022:
State Legislative Priorities
- Authorize Property Tax Incentive for Private Landowners to Protect Trails.
- Support climate-related priorities such as “Policy on Resilient Forests for Connecticut’s Future” (PRFCT Future) recommendations.
- Enable CT DEEP to more effectively partner with nonprofit organizations and address current administrative grant contracting challenges.
- Ensure public input process for conveying state-owned lands to non-state ownership runs as intended in the state constitution.
- Update Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition (OSWA) statute to better define Urban Green and Community Garden program and make other technical corrections.
- Balance roadside forest health with electric infrastructure resiliency.
State Funding Priorities
- Support CT DEEP staff refills and targeted increases necessary to keep State Parks open and implement conservation priorities up to and beyond the July 1, 2022 retirement cliff.
- Keep the Passport to the Parks Intact.
- Continue state support through bonding for recreational trails (HB 5291 introduced in 2022), open space, and agricultural land protection matching grant programs.
- Protect the Community Investment Act against diversions or raids.
