[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11576]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING THE NEW JERSEY CONSERVATION FOUNDATION

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 23, 2010

  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the New 
Jersey Conservation Foundation, headquartered in Far Hills, New Jersey, 
which is celebrating fifty years of successful land preservation.
  The New Jersey Conservation Foundation, NJCF, began in 1960 with a 
small group of concerned citizens determined to fight a plan by the 
Port Authority of New York to build the region's fourth major airport 
in the middle of the Great Swamp near Morristown, New Jersey. With 
great determination and perseverance, the group succeeded. In 1964, 
they turned over 1,400 acres to the Federal government and on May 29th 
of that same year, the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was 
officially dedicated. It became New Jersey's first National Wildlife 
Refuge and the first federally designated wilderness area east of the 
Mississippi.
  After this triumphant battle, the committee members made the decision 
to take the environmental health of the entire state as its 
responsibility. In 1975, the group officially organized as the New 
Jersey Conservation Foundation.
  NJCF has grown from its roots in the Great Swamp to become one of the 
Nation's foremost land conservation organizations. Through the support 
of its staff and trustees, they have helped protect over 100,000 acres 
of New Jersey farmland, forest and natural areas. From the cedar swamps 
of the Pine Barrens to the urban parks of Newark and Camden, from the 
forests of the Highlands to the marshland of the Delaware Bay, NJCF has 
provided New Jersey land with the protection it deserves.
  In addition, NJCF has been at the forefront of every key legislative 
initiative to protect farmland, forests, and water quality throughout 
the State. The foundation has been a leader in the passage of historic 
legislation to protect the Pine Barrens and the Highlands--respectively 
the Pinelands Protection Act and the New Jersey Highlands Water 
Protection and Planning Act--as well as every Green Acre bond 
initiative.
  Today, NJCF continues their good work across the State: from Cape May 
to the Highlands, from the Hudson to the Delaware.
  Madam Speaker, I ask you and my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating the New Jersey Conservation Foundation for its 50 years 
of dedicated work on behalf of the great State of New Jersey.

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