We Applaud Long Pond Volunteers: NJ Must Fund Parks

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)’s Division of Parks and Forestry will dedicate a new footbridge on Saturday. The footbridge will link key trails at Long Pond Ironworks State Park in Passaic County. They will also mark the opening of new museum exhibits enhancing the public’s appreciation of the park’s history. The bridge is a key link for hiking trails maintained by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, including the Highlands Trail, Hewitt-Butler Trail, the Sterling Ridge Trail, and the Hasenclever Iron Trail. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“It’s good to see these improvements going into Long Pong Ironworks State Park. This is a great volunteer effort, but it shows that they must since the state doesn’t have enough funding to manage our parks. There are massive backlogs and parks are falling apart without improvements for years. Voters have dedicated monies for capital repairs and improvements. By 2015 it was supposed to be $30 million a year. Instead, we’re only seeing $8 million a year. Over the last decade the parks budget is down 40%. This massive backlog means volunteers have to raise the money to maintain our parks. For me, this is especially important as a third-generation Ringwood property-owner and frequent attendant of the region’s parks.

“State Parks in NJ provide $4.5 billion/year in economic activity and we need to invest in them. With less money to manage parks and historic sites, the chance for vandalism will increase. A few years ago when closed, there were break-ins at Washington’s Crossing and Ringwood State parks. We still haven’t found the Revolutionary War artifacts that were stolen. We may also see more illegal dumping of tires, refrigerators and even toxic chemicals in our parks since they have less staff and enforcement. We could see more poaching, illegal ATV activity, and damage to our parks and natural areas. People may fill in wetlands or allow from more pollution since there’s no one watching. There will be chances for more problems on Barnegat Bay and other places.

“It’s good to see improvements to our parks because we need an overhaul of how we manage them here in New Jersey. Under Governor Christie, our parks began falling apart with park employees dropping from 1,000 employees to 427. Our state parks are some of the most heavily used in the country. On regular summer weekends, most swimming and picnic areas are closed by 10 am because they’re already filled. While the DEP has purchased hundreds of thousands of acres of open space, we haven’t opened up a new swimming area since 1981. It will be a nice day for people to enjoy the park and its new improvements. We need to put funding back into our parks system so we can continue to grow and improve the open space that belongs to all of us.”