NJAS Opinion: Autumn, 1990
Watershed lands in New Jersey are some of our best lands for open
space, water quality, air quality, flood control and pollution
prevention, especially non-point, and wildlife habitat in the
entire state. Large tracts of open lands were established around
water supplies, sometimes by eminent domain, with good reason.
It is cheaper to keep the supply clean and pure than it is to
clean it up later. As it turns out, there was great foresight
in this planning for other values as well. In some areas of our
crowded state, watershed lands are virtually the only open
space left. One thinks of populous Bergen and Union counties immediately.
In some areas, they are the best quality open space, forest and
wildlife habitat left, not only in the area, but in the state.
One thinks of the Pequannock Watershed immediately.
The first point is that the technology which allows the clean
outflow from the pipe doesn't change the original value of the
set asides. It is costly to clean up water and pollution. Not
only are watershed buffers cheap, but they provide free air quality
control, free flood control, free wildlife habitat and recreational
lands. These other values of watershed open space are equally
as important as water quality and mutually interconnected, which
leads to the second point.
The state of New Jersey has tremendous open space needs. The state
outdoor recreation plan calls for an additional 373,000 acres
of open space to keep pace with our needs. The Governor's Council
on New Jersey Outdoors called for $800 million to deal with our
open space needs for recreation and habitat. The state plan calls
for ordered growth in infrastructure areas so open spaces can
be preserved. A recent issue of Scientific American, devoted
to the subject of managing the planet earth, called attention
to the importance of contiguous forest tracts for conserving species,
which are being lost at a rapid rate. The contribution that watershed
lands make to the open space inventory and to conservation of
resources shouldn't be lost, owing to a short-sighted, narrow
view of watershed lands that looks only at short-term economic
benefits and neglects to look at the cost of open space and the
cost of benefits that open space provides.
The problem has been that watershed protection and conservation
programs have operated under different agencies, when in fact
a unitary approach is required. In nature, water quality, habitat,
clean air, and healthy forests are all connected. Our first imperative
has to be to keep as much watershed land in open space as possible,
not to figure out how little we can get away with. A funding mechanism,
or mechanisms, has to be found to accomplish this. One solution
may be to divert monies from regulatory and judicial mitigation
and compensation awards to matching Green Acres programs for municipalities.
Tax incentives, set asides, some outright acquisition, and some
condemnation - all may have to be used together to get the job
done. These lands are different in values and in importance from
other kinds of lands and they have to be treated differently.
The rules and regulations to be adopted by the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) establishing buffer zones
for reservoirs need to take into account non-point source pollution,
drinking water quality, and open space conservation, since every
agency is a land manager. The lands around various reservoirs
differ greatly in size, which suggests immediately that some of
our buffer lands may be on the small side now for all buffer functions;
Wanaque is surrounded by thousands of acres, other reservoirs
by much less. The assumption has to be that diversion of watershed
lands to other uses would occur only rarely. In order to protect
these lands, the procedure for reviewing land conveyance proposals
should at a minimum include the following:
There should be a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) required both for the entire watershed land and the particular
parcel to be conveyed. The parcel might be a critical piece of
the whole and might compromise the integrity of the whole watershed
buffer if conveyed. A good EIS would include vegetation, animals
in all taxa, and an evaluation of the piece in relation to the
lands that surround it. The EIS should come under the jurisdiction
of the Division of Natural Resources within DEP, so that it is
coordinated with other natural resource programs. There should
also be a citizen's advisory panel drawn from various fields of
expertise to advise DEP on the conservation aspects of such a
decision as well as the water quality considerations. No transfers
of land should occur before regulations are in place. Land uses
at odds with good conservation practice should not be permitted
on lands intended to conserve water supplies. Such land uses probably
need to be spelled out in the regulations.
In summary, the imperative for watershed lands is to keep as much
as possible open, not to search for a supposed minimum. Mechanisms
have to be found to fund the conservation of watershed lands.
The mechanisms may have to be unusual because these are unusual
lands, eminently worth saving.
Richard P. Kane
Director of Conservation
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