In calling for the “preservation” of “half” of New Jersey’s land (https://centraljersey.com/2024/05/06/an-urgent-call-to-preserve-half-of-new-jerseys-land/), Jay Watson and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation are misleading your readers. What they’re including as “preserved land” includes a high portion of playgrounds and sports fields. These are well and good, indeed excellent and much needed, but the article would lead the reader to believe that all the preserved land will be natural: it tells us that the “1.4 million acres remaining that are neither developed nor preserved…are not just sitting around doing nothing! They’re quietly providing priceless ‘ecosystem services’: preventing flooding by absorbing rainwater from storms, holding soils in place, filtering impurities from the air and water, sequestering carbon to fight climate change, providing habitat for a diversity of wildlife, and improving our food security.” We need both natural lands AND playgrounds, sports fields, and so on. Let’s be accurate about what “preserving half of New Jersey’s land” means.
Robert Moss
Bloomfield
