The Mount Holyoke Range. Mount Tom. Lake Wyola. Tully Lake. The Quabbin Reservoir. Robert Frost Trail. These are just a few of the beloved state parks and trails that are part of the fabric of life in western Mass.

Places like these are what makes Massachusetts — and the Connecticut River Valley — such a great place to live. Our state’s rivers, lakes, forests, farms, and other natural areas play a critical role in our everyday lives — improving our daily routines, boosting our health, and strengthening our state’s economy.

Whether we’re hiking, hunting or fishing, or just enjoying a picnic at a local park, access to nature helps our physical and mental health, and gives our kids more ways to get outdoors. Our state’s forests and other natural areas help reduce runoff in our lakes, rivers and streams — protecting the quality of the drinking water in our taps and wells. And by supporting outdoor recreation businesses, providing clean water and locally grown food, and attracting tourism, our state’s forests and farms help strengthen our entire economy.

But as a state, we need to do more to protect our valuable natural resources, including right here in western Mass. With federal funding for land and water conservation under threat, and the effects of climate change threatening our forests and watersheds, Massachusetts needs to act to protect our legacy of natural beauty — before it’s too late.

Right now, Massachusetts is losing our forests, farms, wetlands, and clean water sources at an alarming rate of more than 10,000 acres every year. We face a growing backlog of polluted rivers and streams that need to be cleaned up. And the longer we wait, the more expensive it will be to protect these irreplaceable natural resources.

Next year, Massachusetts has an important opportunity to protect our rivers, lakes, forests, farms, and other natural areas by supporting the Protect Water and Nature ballot initiative.

The ballot initiative would generate $100 million each year to support the conservation and restoration of water and natural areas in Massachusetts, and to create more outdoor recreational spaces like trails and parks that everyone can enjoy. It does this by dedicating funds from the existing state sales tax on sporting goods to protecting and conserving water and nature.

The Protect Water and Nature ballot initiative isn’t a tax increase — consumers and businesses wouldn’t pay a penny more. It simply ensures that a portion of the sales tax we already pay on sporting goods like golf clubs, RVs, and camping gear goes toward protecting our land and water. The initiative also would establish a public oversight board that would approve all expenditures. Eligible projects include permanently protecting forests and wetlands, adding and improving trails in local parks and forests, removing pollution in rivers and streams, and improving our state’s climate resiliency to reduce the damage from storms and flooding.

After decades of inadequate funding for land and water conservation, this ballot initiative would let Massachusetts protect our outdoor spaces the way we should be. While $100 million is just a small fraction of the state’s $60 billion-plus annual budget, it’s four times the state’s current annual spending on land and water conservation.

The Protect Water and Nature ballot initiative would help deliver much-needed funding to protect water and nature right here in Hampshire and Franklin Counties. That could include projects like the revival and expansion of Anniversary Hill Park in Holyoke, adding key tracts of forest to protect drinking water in the Quabbin Reservoir, restoring rare habitat in Orange and New Salem, working with the community in Montague to protect farmland, and reviving the Robert Frost Trail from Hadley all the way to Montague. All without raising taxes.

That’s why Kestrel Land Trust and Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust are thrilled to be supporting this ballot initiative, along with our partners at other local organizations like the Connecticut River Conservancy, Deerfield River Watershed Association, Franklin Land Trust, and Hilltown Land Trust, as well as statewide land and water conservation groups including Appalachian Mountain Club, Mass Audubon, Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, The Trustees, and Trust for Public Land. If you’d like to find out more or support the campaign yourself, you can visit natureforma.org.

The state Legislature still has a chance to act on parallel legislation over the next few months, and advocates hope they will do so. But if they don’t, get ready to hear more about the Protect Water and Nature campaign next year. We hope you will join us in voting to protect the places we love — clean water, healthy forests, more trails and parks, and access to the outdoors and nature for everyone in Massachusetts.

Kristin DeBoer is executive director of the Kestrel Land Trust and Emma Ellsworth is executive director of the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust.