Garden State Greenways

Making the Connection

Imagine a New Jersey where every resident can walk out their door and access a system of parks, protected natural, agricultural, and historic lands, linked together by greenways and trails. This vision, along with a set of planning tools to help inform and coordinate the preservation efforts of state agencies, local governments and non-government organizations, is New Jersey Conservation Foundation's Garden State Greenways. Spanning rural, suburban and urban areas alike, this "green infrastructure" will help maintain and improve quality of life in New Jersey.

PROTECTING OUR QUALITY OF LIFE

16,000 acres of land are lost each year in New Jersey to development*, most of it in the form of single-use, automobile dependent "sprawl." This pattern of development chokes our roads with traffic, diminishes our air quality, raises property taxes, destroys habitat for native plants and animals, limits recreation opportunities, makes walking and cycling unsafe, degrades the character of our rural communities, siphons needed investment away from our cities and older suburbs, and paves-over our watersheds, causing increased flooding and diminished water quality and quantity.

Re-development of existing residential, commercial and industrial sites can accommodate future growth, but once open space is lost, it is difficult to reclaim. The challenge that Garden State Greenways addresses is where best to direct our preservation efforts today so that the landscape we leave our children is still capable of maintaining New Jersey's quality of life.

Garden State Greenways draws its inspiration from America's metropolitan park plans of the late 19th and early 20th century. To visionary planners like Frederick Law Olmsted, parks and open space were not merely afterthoughts to development. They were critical to people's quality of life, places that needed to be planned for and secured in advance of, or alongside, development.

* Hasse, John E. and Lathrop, Richard, G. 2001. Measuring Urban Growth in New Jersey. Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. 43 pg.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Garden State Greenways is the result of cooperative work between New Jersey Conservation Foundation and its partners, including the NJDEP Green Acres Program, the Farmland Preservation Program, and the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis at Rutgers University, among others. The ongoing initiative has been made possible by an "ISTEA" grant from the Department of Transportation and the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. GOALS The goals of Garden State Greenways are meant to challenge and inspire the public, as well as all state and local agencies, non-government organizations, and citizens' groups involved in open space, farmland and historic preservation. These goals can only be achieved through cooperative efforts and with sound planning. Specifically, the goals of Garden State Greenways are to:

1. Establish parks, trails, and protected natural, agricultural, and historic lands within walking distance of every New Jersey resident, fostering physical activity, health and well-being.
2. Permanently preserve New Jersey's critical natural resource lands: those that are comprised of, or contribute to groundwater and aquifer recharge, surface water quality, rare and endangered species, and productive soils.
3. Permanently preserve large, contiguous tracts of natural land: forest, wetlands, grasslands and dunes, for the long-term survival of native plant and animal species.
4. Permanently preserve large, contiguous tracts of farmland for the long-term maintenance of agriculture as an industry and way of life.
5. Permanently preserve historic landscapes, and natural and agricultural lands surrounding historic sites, in order to maintain their character, visual context, and interpretive value.
6. Link together parks and preserved natural, agricultural, and historic lands via trails and greenways, to form an interconnected system or "green infrastructure."
7. Secure and incorporate appropriate levels of public access throughout New Jersey's green infrastructure, allowing for the observation, enjoyment and interpretation of the resources protected therein.
8. Coordinate the preservation planning efforts of state, county and municipal governments, non-government organizations and citizens' groups, around common maps and spatial data, in pursuit of the above-listed goals.

CREATING THE VISION

Creating the Garden State Greenways vision has entailed three steps: (1) The inventory and geographic information system (GIS)-mapping of New Jersey's existing and proposed open space and greenways, as well as additional "data layers" of important information about the landscape; (2) Gathering input from the preservation community; and (3) Conducting a state-of-the-art Green Infrastructure Assessment, to identify and assess potential greenway "hubs" and connectors throughout the state. Garden State Greenways is meant to be a dynamic vision and as such will be updated over time, as new information becomes available, and as the vision is used and built-upon throughout the state.

FROM VISION TO REALITY

The Garden State Greenways vision cannot be realized by the actions of any one agency or organization. Every public and private agency responsible for the protection of New Jersey's open space, farmland, and historic sites or the development of greenways and trails; every community, every landowner, and every resident has a role to play. Garden State Greenways can inform and help to coordinate their efforts by providing a statewide vision, goals, and a set of powerful planning tools.

PLANNING TOOLS

To those involved in open space, farmland, and historic preservation in New Jersey, Garden State Greenways provides planning tools to help identify and prioritize critical areas for preservation, plus potential greenway connectors linking them together. These tools will be made available through a Garden State Greenways Website hosted by the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis at Rutgers University, starting in June 2004. Planning tools available online will include:

• Printable county maps illustrating the Garden State Greenways vision;
• GIS data downloads;
• Web-based interactive mapping for those without access to GIS software;
• Information on existing local open space plans; and
• A GIS-based prioritization tool, enabling GIS users to tap the rich data layers developed for Garden State Greenways, in order to identify critical greenway hubs and connectors within their own areas of interest and according to their own priorities

Please Check back to this website periodically for updates on the Garden State Greenways Project or email us at info@njconservation.org.