A modest celebration of a great natural resource

Sterling Forest - U.S. Rep. Sue Kelly, Orange County Executive Ed Diana and others appeared at the Sterling Forest Visitors’ Center a week ago Thursday to celebrate a $2 million item included in President Bush’s proposed $2 trillion federal budget. Although the funds would be far less than the $10 million originally requested, officials spoke of it as one more step in the conservation of the Highlands, an area of more than three million acres of forested ridges, pure streams, lakes and reservoirs stretching across southeastern Pennsylvania, northwestern New Jersey, the lower Hudson Valley and the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut. The area includes the Orange County towns of Monroe, Tuxedo, Warwick and Woodbury and is part of the Appalachian Mountain Range and form a vital greenbelt for the Philadelphia, New York and Hartford metropolitan areas. Most significantly, the Highlands provide and protect water supplies for more than 15 million people. “Much of the reason to keep open space is for watershed protection,” said Geoff Welch of Ramapo River Watershed Keepers. “We are making progress and just have to keep ahead of the developers.” The federal funds would be available only for the purchase of land or development rights; it could not be used for remediation such as contamination cleanup. They also could be used as leverage by “matching” the contributions of others. Money for the purchase of land or development rights comes from private funds and from various levels of government such as towns, counties, states and the federal government. Diana noted, for instance, the county has budgeted $3.5 million for open space in each of the last two years. Congress passed the 2004 Highlands Conservation Act authorizing up to $10 million per year in federal funding for the Highlands region over 10 years. Kelly recalled the debates two years ago and the difficulty in convincing her colleagues from Western states that there was forested open space back here in the East in need of protection. Most of those at the Sterling Forest celebration spoke of a more modest goal and urged the audience, and each other, to lobby to keep the $2 million from shrinking or disappearing during the federal budget process.