The health of New Jersey’s environment is constantly at odds with the state’s rapid urban development. In fact, for most of its history, New Jersey has largely failed to adequately consider the environment in favor of industrialization. While industrial development flourished in the 19th century, environmental ignorance led to contaminated water and polluted air. It led to raw sewage getting dumped straight into oceans and rivers. For many years, the New Jersey environment was infamous for its poor quality. In 1973, New Jersey even had the highest cancer rate in the country.
Preserving New Jersey’s environment was not considered a forefront sociopolitical issue until the 1960s, with the emergence of a national environmentalist movement following the publication of the highly influential environmentalist book Silent Spring in 1962. From the 1960s to the 1980s, New Jersey aimed to resolve its toxic relationship with the environment using legislation. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) was established in 1970, laws regulating the release of greenhouse emissions were passed, and notably, the Green Acres Program was established in 1961.
The Green Acres Program works to conserve many environments and recreational areas across New Jersey. According to the official NJDEP website, Green Acres has preserved over 1.28 million acres of New Jersey’s nature, with 80,000 acres coming from their tax exemption program. The Green Acres Tax Exemption program, established in 1974, allows non-profit organizations that own private land to open up their property to the public without paying taxes, so long as that land is purposed for conservation and recreation. Green Acres is not the only program working towards conservation in New Jersey. Some of its public partners include the state’s Trails Program and the Recreation and Park Association (both under the NJDEP).
There is an extensive list of land that can be considered for the Green Acres Program. According to the New Jersey Administrative Code (NJAC) 7:36–which details the rules of Green Acres– historic properties, playgrounds, athletic fields, wildlife preserves, forests, oceans, bays, lakes, ponds, swimming areas, and more are acceptable. Proposed lands then have to be subject to technical review by the Bureau of Technical and Financial Services to see if the lands are eligible. Land surveys and appraisal reports are conducted as part of this technical review to check the state of the property. Inspection ranges from seeing the property’s physical characteristics to its legal and economic characteristics.
On top of technical review, properties face other requirements to join Green Acres. Under subchapter 10 of NJAC 7:36, lands that receive Green Acres funding are required to list themselves in the Recreation and Open Space Inventory (ROSI) provided by the NJDEP. The ROSI is a public database that can be accessed via the NJDEP website and used to filter through individual townships to see areas that have received Green Acres funding.
Green Acres works with many properties, but most tend to be generally smaller and less notable than giant parks or spaces like the Pine Barrens or Corson’s Inlet. Both of these parks are not part of Green Acres. The Pine Barrens is a national park and thus is under the National Park Service, while Corson’s Inlet and other large parks around the state are under the NJDEP’s State Park Service.
Cherry Hill, and surrounding townships like Haddonfield and Gibbsboro, have many areas under Green Acres. Such areas are easily identifiable by an entrance sign with a sprawling green tree, like at John Adler Memorial Park at Challenge Grove in Cherry Hill or Blueberry Hill in Gibbsboro. Otherwise, ROSI will have it listed in its database.
Plenty of Camden County parks are under Green Acres; the aforementioned John Adler Memorial Park is a county park. It is the home to the popular Jake’s Place playground and various sporting facilities. Pennypacker Park–known for its fossils from the dinosaur Hadrosaurus Foulkii Leidy– is one of several parks that encompass Cooper River and nearby bodies of water. The aptly named Cooper River Park is 300+ acres, and runs through Cherry Hill, Collingswood, and Haddon Township, following the Cooper River. Hopkins Pond Park and Wallworth Park are nearby, encompassing Hopkins Pond and Wallworth Lake respectively.
Conservation efforts naturally extend to the coastal areas of New Jersey as well, like in Cape May County. Green Acres conserves places like Great Egg Harbor in Ocean City, Sunray Beach in Middle Township, Sunset Beach in Wildwood Crest Borough, and many other beaches and beach fronts.
Preserving New Jersey’s environment is still relatively modern compared to the state’s overall history. While issues with urban development encroaching upon the environment remain contemporary, programs like Green Acres are designed to address these issues and aim for a better environment for New Jersey’s future.