ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Environmental Conflict and Accommodation:



An Evaluation of Regional Land Use Management

in the New Jersey Pinelands

by ROBERT J. MASON, Ph.D.

Dissertation Director: Professor James K. Mitchell



New Jersey's Pinelands comprise the largest tract of sparsely settled land in the Megalopolitan corridor of the northeastern United States.  In 1978, the Pinelands became the country's first, and to date only, "national reserve".  As such, they have been the focus of an innovative and arguably successful experiment in regional land use planning and management.  This study examines how and why Pinelands initiatives have taken root in an unpromising era for regional land use planning, the distribution of benefits and costs of Pinelands planning, the nature and resolution of conflicts among competing interests, and the implications of regional planning for regional identity.



The timing of the Pinelands preservation effort is largely the result of an exceptionally strong gubernatorial commitment to preserving the region, federal interest in "greenline parks" (which contain both private and publicly owned lands and are managed through intergovernmental agreements), and suburban growth pressures and other specific threats to the local environment which were most evident in the late 1970s.  The Pinelands program has survived numerous legal, administrative, and legislative threats to its integrity.  The preservationist viewpoint has prevailed, though locally based economic interests have received more concessions in recent years.  The Pinelands National Reserve represents an accommodation of metropolitan based interests with rural concerns within a clearly defined ecological region.  There is sparse evidence, however, to support the notion that there is a Pinelands culture region.  Protection of cultural resources is a part of the Pinelands planning mandate, but the questions of how to define and manage these attributes have in practice been secondary to those of preserving water quality and vegetation.  In sum, the Pinelands experience does not, at present, appear to offer a compelling example for protection of other highly valued ecological and cultural landscapes.