By Jay Watson
Co-executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation
For the last three years, I have served in the unique capacity of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s co-executive director, most recently alongside my colleague, Alison Mitchell. As I transition from co-executive director at the end of 2024 to a new role focusing more on urban green infrastructure investments in Trenton and the state, Alison steps forward as the sole executive director.
I feel blessed to have served in this role and wanted to take this opportunity to look back at how much incredible progress has been accomplished in protecting land and natural resources in New Jersey – and what lies ahead. The state we’re in is also blessed, with an abundance of permanently protected open spaces, from High Point to Cape May Point. We have amazing parks, forests and other undeveloped open spaces.
New Jersey has been forward thinking in its green investments since the 1960s. The first Green Acres ballot questions set the stage for a strategic preservation agenda, while also providing resources to improve our parks in just about every community, all of which contributes to a high quality of life.
We are the most densely developed and populated state in the nation and our people are as diverse as our landscape. We have collectively managed to protect nearly 33% of our land base – 1.6 million acres out of a 4.8 million-acre total land mass – and we have much left to do.
The incredible New Jersey Conservation Blueprint tool estimates that we have just 1.4 million acres left that are undeveloped and largely unprotected, a little less than the size of Everglades National Park and a little larger than Grand Canyon National Park. The ultimate decisions about what happens to these lands will be decided over the coming few decades. That means that all land use in New Jersey will be decided, all land stakes claimed.
Fortunately, this state we’re in is also blessed with incredible partners working hard every day to build on our collective preservation successes in every region of the state. Nonprofit land conservancies, state, county and local agencies are working to make sure we continue preserving those lands that provide critical eco-system services such as stormwater absorption and habitats for many species.
These partners will continue working in major eco-regions like our Pinelands, Highlands, Sourlands and Delaware bayshore, while also making sure we invest in conservation, recreation and engagement in our cities.
Earlier this year, the foundation, the Nature Conservancy and other agencies brought together experts, groups and agencies working in conservation and environmental protection in the state to develop a report entitled, “Nature for All – A 2050 Vision for New Jersey,” to assess what is left in our state and create a collective vision for the future.
The report calls us to preserve half of what is left, with 500,000 acres of the most important lands for eco-system services, climate and habitat values protected by 2050, and beyond that, an additional 200,000 acres of remaining important lands. It’s an ambitious agenda that will require more motivated, willing conservation sellers, public support, innovative approaches and bold leadership.
I cannot wait to see the good work and bright future for conservation ahead.
To learn more about the New Jersey Conservation Blueprint, visit www.njmap2.com/blueprint/. Check out the “Nature for All – A 2050 Vision for New Jersey” report at www.njconservation.org/nature-for-all/.
