The New Jersey Highlands is 80,000 acres of largely contiguous forest stretching from Northwest Bergen County to Northern Hunterdon County. The Highlands is one of New Jersey's most important natural resources and is critical to New Jersey's environment and economy.

The Importance of Protecting the Highlands

• The Highlands Region serves 4.6 million (half of NJ) residents with drinking water outside the region. An additional 850,000 people who live within the Highlands also draw water from the ecosystem.
• Our 3 largest industries (food processing, recreation-tourism-fishing and pharmaceuticals) are all dependent on the Highlands for water.
• More recreational visitors go to the NY-New Jersey Highlands each year than Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon National parks combined, making the Highlands an integral component of New Jersey's eco-tourism economy.
• Nearly 150 threatened and endangered species call the New Jersey Highlands their home.
• More than 110 out of the 183 subwatersheds in the Highlands are in water deficit today.
• 3-5,000 acres of the Highlands are lost to development every year.
• If the Highlands are not adequately protected, the cost for additional water treatment (excluding health care costs) in its service area alone would be $100 billion over the next 50 years.

Progress Made!

NJEF and the New Jersey Highlands Coalition helped to pass the New Jersey Highlands Protection Act in 2003, one of New Jersey's most important drinking water laws. Since passage of this landmark law, NJEF has been working to implement and strengthen the Highlands Regional Master Plan.

NJEF was also successful in helping pass a highlands Executive Order (EO) that addresses some of the master plan's flaws and strengthens the document further by ensuring little to no growth in preservation zone communities.

NJEF will continue working to ensure the Highlands Regional Master Plan is the most protective it can be and the towns fully comply within the mandated 1-2 year time table. At the same time, we will maintain a keen eye on local development projects for their consistency with the overall Highlands protection strategy.