Governor approving $61M for open-space preservation
By:Eric Schwarz
A state grant may allow the purchase of some Hillsborough land in the Sourland Mountains.
Gov. Christie Whitman this week is signing seven bills to spend $61 million for open-space preservation. Earlier this month she signed a bill appropriating $14 million for other open-space projects.
Some of the land targeted for protection under the Garden State Preservation Trust Act is the Sourland Mountains, which run through Hillsborough, Montgomery, Hopewell, East Amwell and West Amwell townships.
The Delaware and Raritan Greenway in Princeton Township will receive a $500,000 grant to buy land in the Sourlands, plus land in other areas.
The state grants can be used for up to half the cost of the acquisitions.
Bill Rawlyk, land-acquisition specialist for D&R Greenway, said the nonprofit group is "strategically" buying land in the mountains.
"We foresee possibly a regional trail crossing the Sourlands in the future," said Mr. Rawlyk.
The Sourlands are part of the largest contiguous forest in Central Jersey, Mr. Rawlyk said, with 20,000 acres of continuous woodland which provides a home to deep-forest bird species.
"They’re also an important east-west greenway corridor from the river to Route 206 in Hillsborough and Montgomery. A lot of troop movements and battles in the Revolutionary War were connected in Central New Jersey," Mr. Rawlyk said. "The Sourlands are a potential connection to cross Washington’s Crossing over to the Kingston area."
The Sourlands area hasn’t been subject to much growth, Mr. Rawlyk said, because the geology and soil are not conducive to farming.
But technology has caught up with the need for housing in the area, and now "people can put housing and septic systems there," Mr. Rawlyk said. "They could be developed if we weren’t there to preserve them."
D&R Greenway works in 1,000 square miles in Somerset, Mercer, Hunterdon and Middlesex counties. The group has preserved about 3,500 acres in its 10-year history, Mr. Rawlyk said.
"I believe we are right at the top among nonprofits in putting Green Acres money to work for land acquisition," Mr. Rawlyk said, "as much as even the statewide ones."
The bill providing for future land purchases in the Sourlands was part of a $6.5 million bill Gov. Whitman signed Monday at the Rosenberg farm in Lawrence. On Tuesday she signed another open-space bill in Union Township, Hunterdon County, and another one Wednesday in Mount Laurel.
The preservation act, signed by the governor in June 1999, uses a $98 million annual fund for 10 years approved by state voters.
Gov. Whitman said she is halfway to her goal of preserving 300,000 acres of land before she leaves office at the beginning of 2002.