In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a despondent George Bailey gets to see what his town would have looked like if he had never been born.
It is an alluring concept. Most of us would love to get a magical glimpse of alternate worlds that would exist if one thing or another had gone differently in the past.
But without Clarence the angel, all we can do is imagine a future based on what we know of the past and present — and what we hope for in the years ahead. And it turns out that New Jerseyans aren’t bad at that.
In November, citizens showed they cannot imagine a future without clean water, parks, natural areas, farms, wildlife and historic sites. By an overwhelming margin, voters passed a ballot question amending the state constitution to dedicate part of the state’s existing corporate business tax for preservation programs.
It marked the 14th time since 1962 that voters gave a thumbs-up to open space funding, and it comes not a moment too soon. State coffers for preservation are empty, with all funds from the last bond in 2009 spent or allocated. Citizens clearly understand that our long-term quality of life depends on saving a healthy amount of green.
Another 2014 conservation highlight was the celebration of New Jersey’s 350th anniversary, which spotlighted many of our conservation “firsts.”
These include America’s first national historic park, Morristown National Historic Park; the first federally designated wilderness area east of the Mississippi, Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge; America’s first and only national reserve, New Jersey Pinelands; and the Essex County Park System, the first of its kind in the nation.
The passage of the new federal farm bill in 2014 brought some good news to New Jersey farmers. The farm bill included $1 billion nationwide to preserve working farms and ranches over the next 10 years. Thanks to this program, more than 170 Garden State farms — most of them small and family-owned — already have been preserved. The farm bill also renewed funding for organic farming programs.
The federal listing of the red knot, a long-distance migratory shorebird, as “threatened” was finalized after years of advocacy.
Red knots fly from the southern tip of South America to nesting grounds in the Arctic Circle, stopping each spring along New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore to fatten up on horseshoe crab eggs.
The red knot was already listed in New Jersey as endangered, but the federal listing is more protective. The listing is good news, but it is bad news that the bird had to be listed in the first place.
The worst conservation news in 2014 was the proliferation of gas and oil pipeline proposals across the state, threatening water supplies and preserved lands.
The proposed PennEast pipeline would run between Wilkes Barre, Pa., and a point north of Trenton, crossing through preserved farmland and open space in Hunterdon and Mercer counties.
The proposed Pilgrim Pipeline would run from Albany, N.Y., to Linden, passing through drinking-water supply watersheds and numerous preserved lands in Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Essex and Union counties.
There is a continued threat of reviving a pipeline through the Pine Barrens, which was defeated earlier in the year. And more proposals are coming.
Further unwelcome news in 2014 was the state’s proposal to “divert,” or sell off, 80 acres of preserved land from the Menantico Ponds Wildlife Management Area in Cumberland County, to be converted to an industrial park. If approved, it would be the largest sell-off of state Green Acres land in the history of the program.
Pipelines and land diversions are shaping up to be top environmental concerns in 2015. Another challenge will be determining how corporate business tax revenues will be divided up to meet our state’s needs for land preservation, park development and stewardship, and environmental programs.
If you cannot imagine a future with pipelines crossing preserved lands or seeing our public conservation lands sold off, please speak up now.
To comment on pipelines, contact U.S. senators Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, and your district’s Congressional representative.
To object to the sell-off of 80 acres from the Menantico Ponds Wildlife Management Area, attend the public hearing in Trenton on Jan. 6 or write to Judeth Piccinini Yeany of the Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres program at [email protected].
For more information about pipelines and land diversions, contact Alison Mitchell, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s policy director, at [email protected].
Michele S. Byers is the executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Far Hills.