Below is the text of a letter I wrote to three regional newspapers. The complete letter (from me alone and not from any of our organizations) was sent to the Home News and the Sentinel. A shortened version (their requirements) was sent to the the Star Ledger. I hope this makes it easier for you to support this critical question.

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Next week the residents of New Jersey will be asked to make a difficult decision, one which does not involve voting for a person but to save parts of our state for future generations. Why it this so difficult? It isn't the concept, but the time in which this question is presented to us. That time being at the very beginning of an economic recovery. A time when there is little money to spread among myriad causes demanding attention.

There is a single factor that makes a decision regarding Ballot Question #1 easier, and that is that there may not be a chance to do this again. Once gone, open space will not be recovered.

Many New Jersey residents complain about how rapidly the state is being developed. We frequently lament the very obvious fact that large tracts of woods and open space are being fragmented or developed entirely. Neither fragmentation or wholesale development is good for the environment. Since we have never seen a shopping center, industrial or warehouse park, or housing development demolished and replanted with native trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses, and redeveloped to a natural state with ponds and streams, the answer is clear. We MUST support this initiative now before this land is forever gone. This isn't crying wolf. It's real and it's happening now.

Failing to support Question #1 is very much like thinking that you can't afford to see a doctor when you're sick. With both the doctor and the environmental health of New Jersey, this kind of logic can lead to extremely negative and irreversible consequences. Our open space, and therefore our environment, is becoming increasingly degraded in numerous small steps that are hard to see individually. But inexorably, these steps will lead to massive and irreversible negative consequences for our state; a tipping point after which a balance will be much more difficult and expensive to regain.

Many of us are sufficiently environmentally aware to strongly support clean air and water. It's been engrained in us for decades, and by now is a no-brainer. We encourage anti-pollution measures, and cleaner and leaner vehicles. But often we fail to see the forest for the trees…literally. Open space and preserved wild areas clean our air and water, help maintain a more natural balance of wildlife, and is very good for us in ways we rarely think about, but happily notice when we're walking in the woods or by the shore. This is not just aesthetics but fundamental to the environmental health of our state. Failure to support this question will cause a cascade of negative consequences that we will regret for decades. Just as with encouraging a young adult to begin their IRA at the start of a work career, we need to save as much of our state as we can now. The benefits will just multiply over the decades to come.

The costs will be spread out for a very long time. However, the benefits of voting yes on Ballot Question #1 will become evident immediately and for all time, and for future generations of New Jersey residents to benefit from and enjoy.

Let's not be the ones to whom our grandchildren point and say "they could have done something good here, but didn't." Let us be the ones who are remembered for having made the effort to help save New Jersey's environment. Vote 'Yes' on Ballot Question #1. It's a no-brainer.

Richard Wolfert

East Brunswick