Different Perspectives Of The Highlands
Sometimes it’s very hard to visualize what the Highlands should look like. Everyone will come at it from a different perspective. We have a lot of existing damage in the Highlands that needs to be restored. That’s going to take a lot of care, a lot of people being involved in stream restoration and things like that. From a development pattern perspective, we can't undo the suburban sprawl type development that has happened in the Highlands already. But we can certainly redirect some of what could happen in the future. We need to make sure that we protect the most critical resources in the Highlands. We need to make sure that what areas we don’t protect through preservation are treated very carefully, very delicately. It's a design issue. It's an issue with regard to understanding the landscape, and so I think one of the most critical things I would hope for is that people who work with the Highlands, who work in the Highlands, who do things with Highlands’ lands, do so in context. That they understand the impacts of their actions on that landscape, and they do what they can to avoid damaging them.
Dan Van Abs

Population Growth In New Jersey
It's a nationally significant region in that it is a big water supplier and sits in one of the most densely populated areas in the US. Therefore protecting it is of great importance, because we are going to be relying more and more on the resources of those Highlands to be able to facilitate this population growth in New Jersey and New York. In addition it provides us with the only place to have a kind of natural area that’s so close to the northeast US, which is so urban. This allows people to go out and actually see what the natural environment is like. Some of the issues that people wouldn’t have access to, they can really get the hands-on understanding out there, so this is also an educational issue and a quality of life issue.
Alec Gates

A Broader Look
I think it's more important than ever to take a broader look at these areas to look at what we're doing and find those critical areas that we need to protect and maintain, and to educate people. I’m encouraged by many of the conservation efforts that have occurred within the Highlands region. Whether it be farmland preservation efforts or more conservation easements. There's great incentive to do it.
Heather Gracie

Backyard To Largest Metropolitan Region
One of the things addressed in the 2002 USDA Forest Service Study is the issue of the Highlands’ significance to the northeast region and the nation as well. And one of the things that make the Highlands nationally significant is its importance to New York City and the New York metropolitan area. It's really the backyard for the largest metropolitan region within the nation.
Rick Lathrop

A National Health Issue
The Highlands region is a long ridge system that provides drinking water for a lot of people. So it is a national health issue because of the drinking water supply. If we don’t protect our own drinking water that we consume, then we don't deserve anything but huge taxes that pay for these billion dollar treatment plants. It's cheaper in the long run to protect the areas where we want to recreate and enjoy, and then they also provide us our drinking water. Anything short of a national designation or national recognition is short-sighted.
Eric Stiles

Investing in a Natural Heritage
New Jersey has recognized the importance of its remaining open space, and the people of the state have been very diligent since the sixties in providing tax dollars to be able to try to preserve our natural heritage. It's been pretty successful and needs to be more successful. And so, I'm very optimistic about the future of the Highlands. I think -- that with the resources that New Jerseyans have committed to preserving our natural areas over the past forty years -- that they will continue to do so, and they recognize that the value of our natural heritage is something they can in fact protect. I believe that they will continue to do so and that we will see a good part of the Highlands preserved and protected for them.
Ted Stiles

The Highlands in Fifty to One Hundred Years
When I think about what the Highlands will look like in fifty to one hundred years, I guess I have to think a bunch of different scenarios. If things just continue as they are, it will end up being much more urbanized, there will be little patches of parks here and there, nice little pieces saved. But it would be more like Essex County or Bergen County, so it would be a very suburban place. What I hope will happen is that there will be regional planning mechanisms instituted that will develop a plan for the region, that will ensure that only the amount of development that's appropriate for the region, that will permit the water supply to be preserved and other important resources, that only that amount of development will be allowed to be in the Highlands and it will be directed to the most appropriate places and directed away from the inappropriate places where it would destroy the water supply. Where it would fragment contiguous forests. Where it would be spread all over the place in the fashion it's happening now. How it's going to look in fifty to one hundred years really depends a lot on policy and what people decide to do, the actions they decide to take about this region.
Wilma Frey