NEW!
New Jersey REP supports the "Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act."

The members of REP America in New Jersey are proud to support A-1/A-2635, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act. The land to be conserved under this initiative—some 350,000 acres—includes critical watersheds and forests that must be preserved if New Jersey is to maintain its quality of life and ecological integrity well into the future. Not only will our watersheds be protected by this initiative, but also critical habitat for many of our threatened and endangered species, such as highly-erodable steep slopes, vegetated stream corridors, and wetlands. It will safeguard farmland, historic sites, and recreational areas, while controlling sprawl in areas that should remain relatively natural and directing growth to areas that can sustain it. We encourage Republican legislators to get behind this initiative, backing it with their vocal support and, ultimately, with their votes.

New Jersey is a state that cares deeply about its natural resources and works hard to protect and preserve them.

Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge, Cape May and the famous beaches of our Jersey shores are just a few examples of the wondrous unspoiled areas that attract nature lovers from around the country. Lesser known—but just as valuable—are our state parks and private preserves.

The New Jersey members of REP America are especially proud of our state's recent efforts to protect and expand the Pine Barrens. We especially commend the New Jersey Conservation Foundation for its 2003 acquisition of the 9,400 acre DeMarco property in the heart of the Pine Barrens.

While the members of New Jersey REPare actively working to preserve and protect our state's natural beauty, we're also concerned with the quality of our air and water, and with related issues like hazardous waste, sprawl, brownfields reclamation, and energy-efficient methods of transportation.

Fortunately, here in New Jersey we have many Republican elected officials who share our concerns. We're proud that our GOP delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives — Frank LoBiondo, Jim Saxton, Christopher Smith, Rodney Frelinghuysen, and then-Congresswoman Marge Roukema — was named, as a group, one of REP's "Environmental Heroes" in 1998. We're pleased that State Senators Leonard Lance and Bob Martin, and former State Representative Maureen Ogden are REP America members. And we're especially honored to count Rep. Jim Saxton as a member of our Honorary Board of Directors.

We greatly appreciate the efforts that New Jersey's forrmer governor, Christine Todd Whitman, and the voters of our state made to ensure that our high-quality forests and wetlands were not lost to development. (See "Whither the GOP?" in the Winter 1998-99 issue of our newsletter, The Green Elephant.)

REP members across the country were grateful for Ms.Whitman's valient efforts as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. She was clearly the brightest environmental light in the Bush administration during her tenure, and we were extremely sorry to see her depart from that office. Below are links to a few of our articles and press releases about Administrator Whitman:

• Click here to read our praise for her diesel clean-up proposals.
• Click here to read our press release about her resignation.
• Click here to read what we wrote about that resignation in our Green Elephant newsletter.)

Despite all the good efforts of Republican leaders like those mentioned above, there is still much work to do. That's where our rank-and-file members come in. We invite other conservation-minded Republicans to join REP AMERICA's efforts to preserve and protect the natural resources and quality of life that we enjoy and hope to pass along to future generations.