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Editorial: Secure the Highlands - 5 October, 2003
Secure the Highhlands
Protect the Highlands before it is too late and "progress" takes it for development.
It is vital that the nation's lawmakers understand this fact as the Highlands Stewardship Act works its way through Congress.
The legislation could be detoured in a difficult economy, but the irony is that securing the Highlands actually will save taxpayers much more in the long run, in a protected environment with fewer effects from the ravages of relentless, uncontrolled, unplanned growth.
Rockland's Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, a sponsor of the bill, correctly notes that the legislation is important even while "We're fighting a war, focusing on educating children and making sure senior citizens get a prescription drug plan and veterans get more money."
Supporters say the Highlands Stewardship Act is designed to address urban sprawl, promote smart growth, provide a balance between the region's environmental and economic needs and define what role the federal government should play in the region.
In other words, listen up, wise up, taxpayers and government, all of us, before we build so much, so quickly that future generations inherit a huge bill for roads, schools, sewers, police, and a greatly reduced quality of living.
The Highlands region's 2 million acres crosses Rockland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut and also includes portions of Westchester and Putnam counties.
It contains wildlife habitat and recreation areas within two hours' travel of 20 million Americans and critical watersheds that provide drinking water for more than 11 million people.
Kelly notes the bill is attractive because it provides for acquiring land only from willing sellers. "If somebody's ready to sell, the federal government is interested in buying. If we don't protect the land now, our children will have no land they can go to and appreciate. And in terms of water and a livelihood of flora and fauna, we need to protect it."
Well put.
If enacted, the Highlands Stewardship measure would help the four states protect critical lands and waters in the region by authorizing $25 million annually in matching funds over a 10-year period from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.
It also would provide $7 million a year over 10 years for technical assistance to communities and private landowners.
The Highlands Coalition, a group of more than 100 organizations working to protect the region, estimates it would cost $750 million to protect 180,000 acres of priority lands in New York and New Jersey alone.
Robert Herberger Jr., a regional forester with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, says the state would match any federal grant with money from the state's Environmental Protection Fund.
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., and Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., reintroduced the Highlands Stewardship Act in May. And Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, who also represents part of Rockland, was a co-sponsor of the bill during the last Congress.
Engel notes that passage of the Highlands Stewardship Act will be a "tough sell," given the current congressional leadership, a sluggish economy and the cost of the war on terrorism.
Yes, but if we allow the Highlands to go to development, this region of the United States will eventually have another financial albatross around its neck, in the costs of such "progress."
Engel, who should fight tooth and nail for the Highland measure, should take a lesson from history and recall that if enough people had been instrumental half a century or so ago, Bronx neighborhoods would not have been destroyed by the "progress" of the Cross Bronx Expressway, from which some borough sections have never recovered.
Press Congress on the Highlands Stewardship Act, everyone.
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