What's Happening in New Jersey

New Jersey may bring to mind dense cities, neon boardwalks, and jokes about the turnpike.. But it also is known for the watery quiet of the Pine Barrens, fine beaches, and choice farmland. Sounds more like Vegas doesn’t it, just without the farmland

In New Jersey, conversion of open land for development has often been justified in economic terms: new jobs, more taxes, less people worried about the environment. This arises the question of what is the economic value of a bog, a salt marsh, or an urban park?

On May 21, 2007, the New York Times featured a report by Robert Costanza and his colleagues at the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics that answers this question for New Jersey in accurate and straightforward terms.

In an article on the front page of the Metro section of the New York Times, Pam Belluck reports that the study commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, puts dollar values onto different types of natural lands. Storm-slowing sand beaches cash in at over $42,000 per acre, freshwater wetlands at $11,568 per acre, whereas grasslands are only at $77 per acre.

Robert Costanza and his collaborators, including UVM professors Austin Troy and Matthew Wilson, developed the report by analyzing numerous studies of wetlands and other land types.

The new report is part of a larger effort by the Gund Institute to study and quantify “natural capital” across the earth with the goal of conserving important lands and waters through the recognition of the economic value of different types of ecosystems.

It’s great to see, one of the most looked at cities finding ways to clean up the Earth and keep it green. Not only has New Jersey started multiple petitions and studies but many colleges such as U of M and Yale have been keeping updates on events that college students have been doing to keep track on Global Warming and its effects. With the new upcoming generation of the future and the present adults, we are slowly making our earth a better place to live, even when it has nothing to do with the currency.

As always Keep it Green.