• education programs for kids and adults;

• stream monitoring to assess the impact of our land-use decisions on water purity;

• projects to analyze the impact of future growth, and to stimulate the use of new stormwater management techniques;

• participation in stakeholder meetings on environmental rules and regulations at the state level;

• fulfillment of opportunities to promote the marvelous environmental, historic and recreational resources we have here; and

• restoration projects on watershed property.

But there’s one additional action we can take that is a permanent solution to watershed protection: Municipalities, counties, the state of New Jersey, the federal government and non-profit organizations can buy and preserve property in perpetuity, or hold conservation/ development easements on watershed lands.

In November 1998, New Jersey voters authorized a ten-year expenditure of more than $1 billion to buy vacant land, adding it permanently to the state’s open-space rolls. This is a goal that GSWA wholeheartedly supports. Recently, though, questions have been raised as to whether the state is wisely setting its priorities for open-space acquisition and whether it is ensuring that public funds are spent without inappropriate influence. Having closely observed the Green Acres process to purchase land with state funds, I can affirm that there are many safeguards built into the process – safeguards such as working with existing open-space plans; gathering appraisals by licensed appraisers; and developing photographic and written justification.

In addition, GSWA (with the participation of nine watershed municipalities and many volunteers) has already completed the planning to guide open-space acquisition and easements in the Great Swamp watershed. This guide, which has won one state and three national awards, is helping the state identify where to spend its funds in our area. If you would like to receive a copy, please call the office and ask for Saving Space: The Great Swamp Watershed Greenway and Open Space Plan. Cost is $25 per copy.

If we believe, in short, that preserved open space is an essential contributor to a region’s long-term health, then our commitment to fund that belief must surely be as strong as, for instance, our commitment to build roads or sewage treatment plants.

There are indeed a number of important programs in place working to save open space. They include municipal open-space trusts (in the Great Swamp watershed only Morristown and Madison do not have such a fund), county and state open-space programs, and active federal acquisition programs for the Wildlife Refuge (see column by Bill Koch in this issue) and for the Morristown National Historical Park. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen's support for these efforts in Congress has been critical to keeping them funded.

However, the bottom line is that we simply cannot afford to save all the land necessary to buffer the open spaces we own today, protect our environment and preserve the character of this region unless sympathetic individual landowners are prepared to make bargain sales, donate conservation easements or make outright gifts of property for conservation.