Dougma (dŭg·mə) n.

Well no bears this time, and no pictures yet either. We had a fun time at our annual first camping of the year, and Sarah had a blast. The weather was perfect. Everything went great. Josh was a great big brother showing Sarah the ropes and introducing her to everyone. One of the highlights was playing tag with Josh, his friend Quit and my friends Matt and Deidra.

But for some reason I just did not relax. I didn’t get to spend as much time with friends or just vegging on the beach as I wanted, and I really have no one to blame but myself. Part of the problem is that I just could not shut my brain off. Last year I got a notebook, and it ended up being my ‘PyCon’ notebook. This year, I just didn’t seem to have time, oddly enough. Code freeze at work was Friday and that, I am sure, didn’t help. The official fork will most likely be this upcoming Friday.

I have had no time to work on any of my python projects, and it is driving me crazy. There are so many fantastic things happening with django-survey, and Pinax is picking up steam, I need to put the old PyCon ’08 stuff into archival mode, and start up ’09. There is some very very interesting stuff going on with the DFW Python group that I want to help out on as well. There are so many fantastic things being worked on right now by incredible people, and I feel a down right claustrophobic not being able to do anything myself. I only been able to attend one Boston Python Meetup so far this year!

It looks like I will be in Montanna the first week of July this year (my anual pre-PyCon-Tech kickoff-kickoff). Barring any project ‘issues‘ I hope to get my act together then (with respect to PyCon software for 2009). If there are any pythonistas in the Missoula area, please send me an e-mail! For now I guess I should get back to unpacking the car.

The family and some friends went camping from last Friday until July 4th at Wells State Park. I worked from home Friday (and yes I actually worked), and did not arrive until around 7:30pm. Our 3yo son wanted to ride his trike around the campground and seemed to have too much energy for the adults who spent the day setting up camp, so I headed off with him around the five plus mile grand loop. I figured we would go up hill as far as possible, then head back down once he had burned off enough energy. Being a 3yo he had unlimited reserves and we made it all the way up to the top, halfway between the South Trail entrance and the base of Carpenters Rock (map). I was quite tired and we stopped to prepare for the trip down. The trike wheels are quite loud and the sudden quiet sounds of twilight were quite nice. There was a rustling just off to the left off the road as something came through the woods.

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Governor Deval Patrick has instituted May 12th as Park Serve Day! If you have the time and are able, please check out the list of Massachusetts State Parks and join us in a bit of spring cleaning.

Park Serve Day is this Saturday, May 12th!

Please select a park where you would like to volunteer from the list below and register by clicking the “Register Now” link.

For more information, to register a group of six or more people, or to discuss any special accommodations or needs you may have for the day, please contact the Department of Conservation and Recreation at 617-626-4980 or park.serve@state.ma.us. DCR welcomes all interested participants and has developed a broad list of projects suitable for various abilities.

General directions are provided for your assistance. Please use additional on-line trip planning tools or maps to guide you to the park from your specific starting point.

As I have mentioned before, our local parks are in dire need of attention. Any time you can spare would be greatly appreciated.

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A very special thank you to Speaker DiMasi, Chairman DeLeo, Chairman Smizik and Representative Mike Rush of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. They have passed the new budget which includes ~$10Mil for the Department of Conservation and Recreation; fulfilling Governor Duval Patrick’s campaign promise. The representatives mentioned sponsored the additional monies for the parks department. This proves once again that while it is the big offices which make the big promises, it is the representatives who get the work done. I do not agree with all the decisions made in the budget (link coming later once it’s up on the site), but I was not elected to take part in it. It will effect my voting behavior next session however (this is a note to you Fresolo). But I digress.

Last week the House heeded your call and stood up for Revere Beach, Middlesex Fells, Nickerson State Park, Balance Rock State Park, Walden Pond and other great places across the Commonwealth by including an additional $9.6 million for the Department of Conservation and Recreation in the final version of their budget. Thanks to all of your emails, phone calls and petition signatures, we won this critical first step in the Legislature’s budget process.

This additional funding, championed by Speaker DiMasi, Chairman DeLeo, Chairman Smizik and Representative Rush, means more rangers, cleaner and safer parks, more public access, more educational programs and more recreational opportunities. These lawmakers, as well as all the legislators who supported additional funding for forests and parks, deserve our thanks.

Please email your state representative and thank them for standing up for our treasured public places.

To email your state representative, click on the link below or copy and paste it into your web browser.

https://www.environmentmassachusetts.org/action/preserving-massachusetts/thank-rep?id4=ES

Background

Massachusetts has a strong legacy of preserving our special places. Unfortunately, this legacy, like our state forests and parks, is deteriorating. Many of our public treasures are suffering from chronic neglect, mismanagement and understaffing that in some cases have led to visible decay, safety issues and environmental damage. Our state forests and parks system currently has a deferred maintenance backlog of estimated between $1.2 and $1.7 billion.

Our state forests and parks support dozens of rare species, natural communities, old growth forests and champion tree sites. They provide recreational opportunities for millions of visitors who walk, play, camp, bike, hike, and otherwise enjoy these natural resources. And, they contribute significantly to our economic prosperity in the Commonwealth, supporting robust tourism and recreation economies and even, according to recent studies, drawing young people to settle here.

Unfortunately, Governor Patrick missed a crucial step toward restoring our world class forests and parks a few weeks ago when failed to fulfill his campaign promise to provide an additional $10 million for our forests and parks. By ignoring our forests, parks and beaches, we turn our backs on the places that make Massachusetts such a great place to live and work.

The legislature is writing its budget between now and the end of June, so we are working to build as much support as possible to convince our legislators to deliver the additional resources our public treasures need and deserve. We are working closely with the Parks Caucus in the Legislature, other environmental groups, and you to make this happen. As the first step in that process, the House of Representatives passed the final version of the House budget last Friday. We are happy to report that their final budget includes an additional $9.6 million for the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Please email your state representative and thank them for standing up for our treasured public places.

Sincerely,

Frank Gorke
Environment Massachusetts Director
FrankG@environmentmassachusetts.org
http://www.environmentmassachusetts.org

P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.

Please take the time to thank your representatives for passing this budget and the additional funding for our parks in particular. Don’t know who they are? Here is the list by town and here are their e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Now it is up to the Senate to accept the budget. I will post information on that process later.

And on a personal note….

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