Open space ‘inspires us, heals our wounds’

In advertisements by cellular phone companies, we often hear about the importance of connection, networks, and always having access to the system. What if we applied those concepts to something that we could actually touch, feel and be a physical part of — if we applied those concepts to describe our access to open space in New Jersey — the state we’re in?

Imagine a New Jersey where every resident can walk out his/her door and access an interconnected system of parks, protected natural, agricultural and historic lands. These integrated parts can be natural areas that conserve wildlife, but they can also be places that provide recreational opportunities, such as parks, biking trails or canoeing streams. They can be vast, open trails as far as the eye can see or they can be an urban area‚ local parks or waterways. If you are thinking this idea is a utopian one, think again.

In fact, our neighbors in New York City have one of the most ideal systems of open space thanks to the vision of the city’s most prominent landscape architects, Frederick Law Olmstead. His foresight created a system of parks and bike routes dotting the city from lower Manhattan all the way to the Bronx — so residents in each neighborhood could have their own park, within minutes from their doorstep.

If such connections or “greenways” are possible in the most urban city in America, shouldn’t they be possible in New Jersey?

After all, open space should be preserved for wildlife, plants and natural resources, but it should also be preserved for ourselves. We need open space to inspire us, heal our wounds, humble us, and to give us that one little thing that we are sometimes so in need of — a place to go to get away.

Yet, we often focus on compartments or pieces of a puzzle that don’t have to interlock. We think of our lands in terms of developments or shopping centers — as parts but not the whole. If we thought more in terms of greenways — about what’s outside our neighborhoods, our ZIP codes or even our immediate borders — we would also have more access to these lands in order to enjoy them. We’d have increased our chances to get out there and enjoy the outdoors.

In order to bring this concept home, literally, New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) is working on a Web site called Garden State Greenways, an online planning tool for all those involved in conserving open space, farmland, and historic preservation — from local to statewide levels. We hope when the site launches in mid-September, it will give people the tools they need to make natural connections a reality for each and every person in the state.

When that happens — perhaps when we are out in the parks, trails or wilderness and the answer to “Can you hear me now?” is “No” — that would be a good thing.

I hope you’ll contact me at 1-888-LAND-SAVE or info@njconservation.org, or visit NJCF’s Web site at www.njconservation.org for more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources.

Michele S. Byers

executive director

New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Far Hills