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Inquirer Editorial: Open space worth cost

An umbrella is not a luxury in a rainstorm. But one need not have the latest hand-stitched couture umbrella when something less expensive will do.

tfam07 Apples, pumpkins, and Halloween motifs are all the stuff of autumn fetes, where families can be seen enjoying the crisp weather as they stroll among hay bales and exhibition booths throughout the region. A local environmental organization in South Jersey, though, puts a different twist on its fall event. The Open Space Festival, sponsored by STEM (Save the Environment of Moorestown), aims to get citizens into the woods and out on the water to enjoy some of nature’s offerings and learn about—well, saving the environment. The annual event is held on the shores of Strawbridge Lake in Moorestown, right beside Kings Highway, the town’s main road. The grass there slopes down to a long lake and dam, and tantalizing visitors just across the water is over ten acres of lovely woods dominated by native beech trees. Attendees at the Open Space Festival are offered bird walks through “Waterworks Woods”, as it’s called, and are invited to participate in a nature identification challenge under the trees. Canoes are available for rental, and anyone who takes up the offer discovers that the world is a different place when you’re out on the water, even just a hundred yards from shore. It’s peaceful, and nature moves to the forefront, leaving the human world on the banks.
tfam07 Apples, pumpkins, and Halloween motifs are all the stuff of autumn fetes, where families can be seen enjoying the crisp weather as they stroll among hay bales and exhibition booths throughout the region. A local environmental organization in South Jersey, though, puts a different twist on its fall event. The Open Space Festival, sponsored by STEM (Save the Environment of Moorestown), aims to get citizens into the woods and out on the water to enjoy some of nature’s offerings and learn about—well, saving the environment. The annual event is held on the shores of Strawbridge Lake in Moorestown, right beside Kings Highway, the town’s main road. The grass there slopes down to a long lake and dam, and tantalizing visitors just across the water is over ten acres of lovely woods dominated by native beech trees. Attendees at the Open Space Festival are offered bird walks through “Waterworks Woods”, as it’s called, and are invited to participate in a nature identification challenge under the trees. Canoes are available for rental, and anyone who takes up the offer discovers that the world is a different place when you’re out on the water, even just a hundred yards from shore. It’s peaceful, and nature moves to the forefront, leaving the human world on the banks.Read more
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An umbrella is not a luxury in a rainstorm. But one need not have the latest hand-stitched couture umbrella when something less expensive will do.

Open-space advocates have wisely chosen the less expensive approach to giving land acquisition a steady funding source during New Jersey's prolonged fiscal slump.

Sens. Bob Smith (D., Middlesex) and Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R., Somerset) are sponsoring legislation to shift a percentage of the corporate business tax revenue being spent on other environmental programs to purchase fields, forests, farms, historic sites, and flood-prone areas.

Restructuring tax laws, which requires a referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment, may not be ideal, but it does provide a pragmatic, fiscally responsible way to mitigate storm damage and control flooding in the nation's most densely populated state.

New Jersey has literally lost ground in the battle to preserve land, which is essential to reducing damage not only from moderate storms but also extreme weather events, which have increased in frequency, putting more lives and property in jeopardy.

The bipartisan Senate bill would provide about $71 million a year for four years and subsequently about $117 million a year. That's still less than the $200 million a year New Jersey has provided for land acquisition in the past 15 years.

The bill's chances are less certain in the Assembly, where other recent open-space funding proposals have died for lack of attention. What Gov. Christie will do is also a question mark. He was downright hostile to a plan last year to divert sales-tax revenue to open space, and he persuaded all but two Republican senators to kill that idea.

The new plan won't require bonds, which means the state would save millions in debt-service costs. There is a risk in diverting revenue to land acquisition that is now used to remediate brownfields and clean up hazardous spills. But that risk would be offset if the state becomes more aggressive in making polluters clean up the messes they make.

The state also needs to consider other ways to finance open-space acquisition, says the Sierra Club's Jeff Tittel. For example, it could charge more for private use of public land. It may be time to rethink the deep discounts utilities get to run lines and raise towers on public land. After all, they also benefit from land acquisition that helps protect the state from overbuilding.

To get the business-tax idea on the November ballot, the Legislature must pass the measure before it recesses in July. If Christie vetoes the call for a referendum, the Legislature should override him. New Jersey voters have historically supported open-space measures. They should get to weigh in on this proposal.