Trustees and Staff of Skylands CLEAN joined environmentalists and government officials today for the release of the 2002 U.S. Forest Service Highlands Study.  

Kathryn Maloney of the Forest Service presented the report.  Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), and Rep Eliot Engel (D-NY)  were also on hand at the Skylands Manor Carriage House in Ringwood State Park for the report's release.

The report highlights the threatened nature of the Highlands, a sprawling greenbelt of more than 2 million acres stretching from Pennsylvania to Connecticut.  Nearly 25 million people live within an hours drive of the region, and the area's reservoirs provide drinking water for some 15 million people.

According to a press release by the Highlands Coalition, several key findings were included in the final report:

• Less than half of the region's 540,000 important conservation lands are protected,
• 64% of the region's critical watershed lands are unprotected,
• Current population is likely to increase by as much as 48%,
• Over 5,000 acres of open space were developed annually between 1995 and 2000,
• Water quality and quantity will be severely impacted if current trends continue,
• 100,000 acres of priority lands are facing imminent development pressure.

While the report captured the critical nature of the threats to the Highlands region, it did not lay out a strong plan to protect the region.  Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman are charged with that challenge, and their recommendations are due within a month.

Congressman Frelinghuysen spoke eloquently at the event about the need to protect the Highlands, stating that he planned to re-introduce the Highlands Stewardship Act.  The bill, which died at the end of the last legislative session, enjoyed wide bi-partisan support in both the House and the Senate, and called for $25 million per year for protection of the Highlands. The Highlands Coalition estimates that protecting the Highlands could cost as much as $750 million.

If predictions by the U.S. Forest Service are correct, the population of the Highlands could increase by nearly 50%.This result, which would spell disaster for wildlife, water quality, and traffic in the region, is presented in a study issued by the Forest Service on April 4, 2002.

The Highlands, a roughly 2 million acre area spanning Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, is a critical water supply region in New Jersey.The study, which was limited to New Jersey and New York (see figure below), was designed to update an earlier study, completed in 1992, cataloging the natural resources of the Highlands.The report shows that the region lost over 5000 acres of open space per year between 1995 and 2000 to development.Most of the development was uncontrolled sprawl in rural areas with few jobs and little infrastructure.

The report identified 100,000 acres in the study area which are particularly critical and at risk.In Passaic County, those areas include the Wyanokie and Farnie Highlands and the Pequannock watershed.

Click HERE for a copy of the report.