N.J. Sierra Club Against the Privatization Plans for Norvin Green State Forest
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
press release
OCTOBER 26, 2016--The DEP plans to privatize Green Acres open space by leasing out part of Norvin Green State Forest for a mountain bike park in West Milford. They are requesting bids for a private operator to manage the state's first park for mountain bike riders, which would be located at the site of a former drive-through jungle safari in Passaic County in the 1970s.
The Request for Proposals is seeking an operator to provide services that can generate revenues for the state park system at the former 800-acre Jungle Habitat property, acquired and preserved by the state in 1998. Instead of moving forward with the clear-cut of an environmentally sensitive canopy on Sparta Mountain, we believe DEP should propose areas for Golden Winged Warbler at this site because it is already disturbed.
“The proposal for a mountain bike park at the Norvin Green State Forest is another attempt for the Christie Administration to privatize our state parks. This area was purchased decades ago as open space to protect Highlands streams and reservoirs. Instead of preserving the forest, DEP is proposing to turn this area into a commercial mountain bike park that will cause environmental damage. We are very concerned about this plan because it can include a restaurant, bar, stores, winter activities, concerts, and other large events,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “What the DEP is doing is leasing the entire property to a private vendor who will charge users a fee to ride on its trails. Hiking and bicycling trails are traditionally open to the public without charge, and are maintained primarily by volunteers. Instead, DEP wants to give this land to a private developer long-term whose fees do not go directly back to the park. Their plan is to take revenues from the lease, but the profit will go back to the state. This is outrageous sell-out to taxpayers because this area is held in the public trust.”
Parks have been the one thing that government has done right and that people have enjoyed for years being above politics and commercialization. Any new vendors should keep the mission of the park, be affordable to the public and not interfere with the park or limit public access.
“The plan for the former Jungle Habitat is a complete giveaway of our public parks. Under this agreement, it can turn the entire park into a concession area. The vendor can receive an alcohol license, sell food, which is vague so it could include food trucks and restaurants. There can also be winter activities, equestrian sports, races, bike shops, clothing stores, flea markets, bike rallies, temporary stages, concerts and other major events. This means they can have big lights and generators by connecting to the local grid,” said Jeff Tittel. “We are concerned because they say this is all temporary, but they will need to build bathroom facilities expanding the water and sewer service. Even though there are 30 acres of asphalt, there are no limits to the amount of trees they can cut and there is no limits on disturbance.
We are still concerned with the state giving away our parks like Norvin Green State Forest to private owners. This is the same type of proposal we have seen with Liberty State Park, Sparta Mountain, and Traders Cove in Brick. We believe this is unfair to New Jersey taxpayers because privatization often means higher costs for less service.
“Just like Sparta Mountain and Liberty State Park, we are concerned that the Christie Administration is trying to break the public trust and give away our public lands to private corporations and developers. The result of privatization leads to higher rates worse quality for services, payments for access that was once free, and the proliferation of pay to play contracts. Instead of taking using the fees to go back to the park, it can be used for anything, including park maintenance and salaries, or even non-park purposes. We believe this plan goes directly against Green Acres Bond Acts, the New Jersey Constitution, various Green Acres statutes, and the Green Acres regulations,” said Jeff Tittel. “Since this is a ten-year lease, we are concerned the DEP may be trying to get around Statehouse Commission approval. It is even more unlikely the lease will end after 10 years after they make all of these investments.”
This park is in the northern section Norvin Green State Forest and is important because it helps protect headwater areas in an environmentally sensitive Highlands Forest. We have concerns with this proposal because mountain biking may damage the thin soils in this area.
“With mountain biking, we are concerned this environmentally sensitive area would be subject to more erosion and run-off that will impact the Highlands. It has been close to 40 years since the old Jungle Habitat property closed. Now the fields that were clear-cut are restoring themselves into young forests again. The DEP must look at the impacts to the surrounding category one trout streams like Burnt Meadow Brook and Hewitt Brook. We are concerned that this plan might interfere with water quality and the trout, which are endangered. There also could be harm to other threatened and endangered species like the Swamp Pink and the Timber Rattlesnake,” said Tittel.
The DEP is also moving forward with its plan to privatize Sparta Mountain. This will turn the Mountain into a field for vaguely defined “stewardship” practices and commercial logging. Their plan to log the forest is a sellout of public lands that threatens biodiversity under the disguise of creating bird habitat. It will destroy critical natural resources, threaten our water supply, while violating the objectives and goals of the Highlands Act.
“While the DEP is proposing a new mountain bike park in West Milford, they should consider creating Golden Winged Warbler habitat here instead of on Sparta Mountain. It may make more sense to create the habitat here because the trees are younger and there are already more areas clear-cut,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Instead of harming an environmentally sensitive forest in the Highlands, it makes more sense to create bird habitat near parking lots and already disturbed areas. They could do this at the old Jungle Habitat property because there is land previously clear-cut and the DEP wouldn’t be doing more environmental damage to surrounding streams and wildlife.”