Conservation Trailblazer: Michael W. Huber

RELEASE: Jan. 16, 2009 – Volume XLI, No. 3

Most of New Jersey’s eight million residents never met Michael W. Huber, a conservation trailblazer who passed away in early January at the age of 82. But every single person in this state we’re in has reaped the benefits of his lifetime love of the outdoors.

Mike grew up in New York City, but spent weekends and summers on his grandfather’s land along the Navesink River in the Locust section of Middletown Township, Monmouth County. The land was originally a retirement home for horses that served the family business by pulling ink delivery wagons in New York City. Eventually the property became the family homestead.

Family was at the heart of Mike’s professional career. He absorbed much from his father, who ran the J.M. Huber Corporation with a concern for the environment that was well ahead of his time among industrialists. Mike worked in the family business 45 years and served as chairman, CEO and director. He guided the company's growth into diverse, international businesses, including engineered wood and mineral products, and energy.

Mike’s early years outdoors planted the seeds for his active commitment to the environment. He loved birding, clam digging, and sailing the coast of Maine with his wife Caroline. He knew hundreds of species of flora and fauna by sight, sound and sign.

But Mike’s enormous legacy was more than a personal affinity for nature. He worked tirelessly for the protection and preservation of wild spaces and natural diversity.

Early on, family lands in Locust were donated to the Monmouth County Parks Department, forming Huber Woods Park. “Everybody seemed to agree this was a great thing,” Mike explained once, “because we all loved the place and thought it would be something that the public would love, too - and they do.” Today, the house in which Mike grew up fittingly serves as an environmental education center within the 365-acre park.

Mike saw the big picture and knew that involved citizens would be critical to saving New Jersey’s natural heritage. He put his willing spirit into service on the boards of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation (which he helped found), the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, the Nature Conservancy and the American Littoral Society.

Dery Bennett, director of special projects for the American Littoral Society, recalls Mike guiding the Society both as a trustee and two-term president, “with a firm but gentle hand on the tiller. He knew wildlife, especially birds, he treated the land with great care, he was more likely to preserve open space than subdivide it, and he didn’t feel the urge to put his mark on generous deeds.”

Dery was a fellow clam digger too. “We would wade, rake, and talk while waist-deep in the Navesink,” he recalls, “often to the sights and sounds of birds – brant, gulls, kingfishers, and oystercatchers. Like the rest of us, Mike would pause to look and listen, maybe call out the bird, hitch up his homemade suspenders, and get back to digging. We’ll miss him out on the river.”

Mike was an incredible conservation leader and a wonderfully kind and generous human being. He was instrumental in helping preserve the 9,400-acre Franklin Parker Preserve in the Pine Barrens, named for his brother-in-law and fellow conservation trailblazer, Franklin Parker.

In honor of Mike’s love of the Pine Barrens and birds, a 1,200-acre New Jersey Conservation Foundation property in Woodland Township, Burlington County, will be named the Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve. It is much less than the debt we owe him, but a fitting tribute to a man who helped lay the foundation of New Jersey’s conservation legacy.

I hope you will consult New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org, if you would like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources.

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