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Conservation Group to Target N.J. Open Space Published in the Asbury Park Press 2/26/04 A prestigious land-conservation group with roots in New York's Hudson Valley has raised its sights to focus on land from northern New England to the southern Appalachian Mountains -- and in New Jersey, where the Open Space Institute is expanding its offering of loans to help local groups save open space. "This is an old-line organization with some real muscle and connections. The only thing they don't have is knowledge on the ground in New Jersey," said Michael Catania, a New Jersey conservation activist and the institute's contact in the Garden State. Look for the Open Space Institute to be a player in more land-conservation deals in New Jersey, especially in the Barnegat Bay watershed and Pinelands, say institute officials and Catania, a former assistant state environmental commissioner. Conservation Resources, which Catania founded, will connect local groups with the institute, which also has information online at www.osiny.org. "They are looking for high-leverage deals, and they are looking for key parcels. They're not just looking for any old land project," Catania said. Catania said he's been meeting with nonprofit groups to explain the institute's loan program and will be working to hook up smaller, grass-roots environmental groups with bigger partners who can help raise money. These are flush times for New Jersey open-space advocates, with lots of public and nonprofit funding available, said Peter Howell, who runs the Open Space Institute's loan programs. But it takes a long time to get that money; in the meantime, the institute's bridge loans can help conservationists nail down bargains with a timely closing, he said. This month the group marked the first year of its New Jersey Conservation Loan Fund, which has provided $3.2 million to close deals -- including the 9,400-acre DeMarco cranberry farm purchase in Burlington County, the biggest New Jersey land-preservation effort financed entirely by nonprofit groups. Cranberry grower and longtime Burlington political boss J. Garfield DeMarco sold his family's farm at a discount to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation; the foundation had to scramble to close the $12 million deal last New Year's Eve. They still have to pay off the full purchase price within five years, said foundation executive director Michele S. Byers. Byers' group raised $5.2 million from donors, but if not for the $1.5 million loan from the Open Space Institute, the group might have been forced to seek more expensive financing elsewhere, Howell said. Kirk Moore: (732) 557-5728 |
