Bill > A3090

Introduced Session

This bill renames the pinelands area as the John McPhee pinelands area. John McPhee, a native of Princeton, New Jersey and a Pulitzer Prize author, is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction literature. McPhee's writing career spans over five decades, during which he has published over thirty books and contributed over 100 articles to "The New Yorker" as a staff writer since 1963. He currently serves as the Ferris Professor of Journalism teaching nonfiction writing at Princeton University. McPhee's renowned contributions to the nonfiction literature genre has earned him multiple literary awards and honors. In McPhee's 1968 book, "The Pine Barrens", he illustrates a rich portrait of the culture, history, and ecology of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands. McPhee believed the Pinelands was the last vestige of wilderness on the east coast and advocated for it to become a national reserve. A decade after its publication, this book was pivotal in the political battle to preserve the Pinelands from being destroyed by overdevelopment. During the late 1970's, the United States Congress passed the "National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978" establishing the Pinelands National Reserve and authorizing the creation of a planning entity for the area. Governor Brendan Byrne, with support from environmentalists, pushed for State legislation to preserve the Pinelands, widely crediting John McPhee's book, "The Pine Barrens", for the inspiration to pursue this legislation. As a result, the Legislature adopted the "Pinelands Protection Act" in 1979, which protects sensitive areas and high quality surface and ground water, agricultural and cultural areas, and provides for regional planning to protect the sensitive ecosystem from the pressures of development. The pinelands is the largest remaining example of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem, stretching across more than a fifth of the State's land area. The area's forests and wetlands are home to 1,000 species of native flowering plants, 280 mosses, 34 mammal species, 24 amphibian species, 30 reptile species, and 144 bird species. Unique to the Pinelands is a 17-trillion-gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, containing some of the purest water in the United States. Congress has officially designated 1.1 million acres of the area as the Pinelands National Reserve to preserve its ecology, making it the first National Reserve in the country. Appropriately, renaming the pinelands area as the John McPhee pinelands area is a fitting tribute to the inspiration he provided for legislation protecting the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Committee Categories

Don Guardian (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document