Money coming to Highlands

By Jonathan Meade

Conservation groups in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut received some welcome, and overdue, news last week. Two million dollars in congressional funding under the 2004 Highlands Conservation Act for land preservation has finally been made available this year for the 3.5-million-acre Highlands region.

They are excited at the prospect of using Pennsylvania's $500,000 allocation to preserve land in Berks County's Oley Hills. This is part of a growing partnership working to protect an area that includes five exceptional streams that provide clean drinking water for Philadelphia-area residents. Now the federal government can join state agencies, counties, municipalities, private individuals and foundations, and conservation groups that have already committed to preserve land in this region.

New Jersey's allocation, also about $500,000, will be directed to the Wyanokie Highlands in Passaic County, where the Wanaque Reservoir, a critical water source for state residents, needs protection. Funding will also be used to protect important links between state lands along the Highlands Trail.

Though any new conservation funding is greatly appreciated and needed, $2 million is simply a start and must be expanded to the full authorized amount under the Highlands Conservation Act. Many other important pieces of our landscape deserve preservation, and there is limited funding to do so. The Highlands Conservation Act authorized $100 million over 10 years in the four Highlands states, as well as $10 million for U.S. Forest Service research and technical assistance programs.

Unfortunately, President Bush's 2008 budget does not include funding for Highlands conservation. While there is strong support from Congress, including bipartisan letters from dozens of U.S. representatives and senators, we will work diligently to ensure that federal funding for Highlands conservation increases in 2008 so additional land can be preserved.

Congress has much on its agenda this year. The war in Iraq and the overwhelming budget deficit make expanding federal funding difficult. Still, we are strongly hopeful that our local leaders in Congress, as well as the federal administration, will make conservation in this important landscape a top priority, just as its residents and local governments have.

Dozens of organizations are hard at work preserving the quality of life in the Highlands, something that includes not just important wildlife and habitat, but also agriculture and forestry, recreation, older communities, and, of course, water. Sustainability is at the heart of our efforts, a balance between development and preservation that ensures a lasting quality of life for our children and their children. It also means that, while land preservation is a top priority, issues such as global warming, renewable energy, healthy living, and community revitalization deserve our attention. We need to build community awareness of the interrelated nature of these issues, and work together to safeguard the region's natural resources.

In Pennsylvania, a collaborative effort to project development based on current zoning is under way to help focus conservation priorities. Others are working on creating partnerships among diverse groups, such as land trusts, agricultural interests, and watershed and sportsmen's groups. Proposals supporting conservation will be on the ballot this fall, including a bond initiative in Bucks County. And, of course, while sprawl continues amid a fluctuating housing market, dedicated land trusts and municipalities carry on preserving critical areas throughout the region, including special places like Cooks Creek in Bucks County and Hopewell Big Woods in Chester County.

Finally, the federal Farm Bill will be reauthorized in the next few months. It includes often-overlooked conservation programs that provide billions of dollars to improve land stewardship and preserve habitat. Diverse groups have been coming together to ask Congress to do more for conservation in the Farm Bill, and to do more for the Northeastern states, where farming is no less a part of the landscape than it is in the Midwest, and where federal conservation assistance is inadequate.

As spring begins, I encourage people to get out and enjoy the Highlands. Take a walk or a drive. Go camping. Visit an environmental education center. Buy local produce or join a co-op farm. And, certainly, support local governments and land trusts in their preservation efforts. The water, woods and wildlife of the Highlands are as important a resource to our region as industry. If we achieve our goals, both will grow and prosper, interdependent and intertwined.