New Jersey Survival

Hi Brian,

Thank you to the more than 1,000 people who told the state Assembly to stand up to the developers’ dream bill that would extend building permits for up to seven years.

The environmental progress we have worked so hard to win is in danger. Positive steps protecting New Jersey’s open spaces and water over the last two years would be as if they never happened. New protections occurring over the next five years to ensure New Jersey keeps its status as the Garden State won’t apply.

No wonder developers have been intent on cozying up with Legislators on this bill as they aspire to protect their own interests above those of New Jersey’s environment. Just yesterday, an Assembly committee ignored public outcry and unanimously passed the developers’ dream bill.

Send an e-mail to your Senator to tell them to stop these environmental rollbacks and end the developers’ dreams.

It will roll back protections that Environment New Jersey and our members fought to win to protect our state’s waterways and allow developers to ignore environmental protections passed in the next five years. It would give new life to developments that have been defeated in the past, like Eagle Ridge in Passaic County, a 280+ home project above the largest reservoir in the state, the Wanaque.

The effort would give up to seven years to extend projects until the eve of 2013, regardless of what strong environmental protections occur in the next five years. The bill even negates past protections adopted after 2006, including some that Environment New Jersey fought hard to win, like no-development buffer zones around state waterways to reduce flooding.

Unfortunately, the bill is still gaining traction, with 15 Senators caving to the developers, and signing on.

Tell your Senator to oppose this legislation right now!

HELP US STOP THE DEVELOPERS’ DREAM BILL!

For more details on this breaking news, visit our Web site.

Sincerely,

Dena Mottola
Environment New Jersey Executive Director
DenaM@EnvironmentNewJersey.org
http://www.environmentnewjersey.org

P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.

A 726-pound male black bear, the heaviest ever handled by New Jersey wildlife officials, was captured over the weekend in the northern Passaic County township. It was treated for a nose injury, marked with identifying tags and set free.

“That is just its spring weight. It only recently left a winter den … Wait until it feeds all summer to fatten up for denning this fall. It could get over 900 pounds,” said Len Wolgast, a member of the state Fish and Game Council and former wildlife biology professor.

The bear was trapped and tranquilized, along with another bear, on Saturday. A third male bear was trapped in the same area Monday.

Wildlife officials set traps in the area because residents had been complaining of bruins getting too close to people and even following children.

A couple in the area was given a warning for leaving food out for the bears — a possible precursor to a summons — but officials said the bears were not euthanized because they had not posed an imminent threat to humans, nor had they broken into any homes.

“We were getting complaints from their neighbors. There were five or six bears wandering in the same neighborhood, and the complaint was that they were becoming tame, getting close to people,” said Lawrence Herrighty, assistant director of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. “The couple was leaving food out for the bears in their yard.”

The big bruin and another male bear were snared in culvert traps — large, drum-like devices placed in the backyard of one home.

Rather than kill the bears, however, officials tried to put the fear of humans into them. The bears were released from the trap and fired at with rubber buck-shot and firecrackers in a bid to make them fearful of human contact.

“It was done right in the area where they were caught so they would know that to be an area to avoid,” Herrighty said.

Reports of large bears, nicknamed “Bearzilla” by people living with them in the northwest corner of the state, are common. But until now, the largest caught by the state wildlife officials was more than 100 pounds lighter.

The bear trapped in West Milford was enormous compared with the average 200- to 400-pound weight of most bears handled in New Jersey.