It Happened in NJ...

continued from page 30 when a terrible combination of inverted air mass, steam from a local power plant, and a landfill fire reduced visibility along a stretch of New Jersey Turnpike to zero. Nine people lost their lives in a massive sixty-six-car crash, leading to the National Transportation Safety Board pressuring the state to clean up the area. Within the next two decades, local environmental agencies, including the Hackensack Riverkeeper and the New Jersey Sierra Club, joined various federal agencies to strike deals with development companies to preserve equal track of land to those they proposed to develop. This was the case with the more recent American Mall, which saw the state permitting the Mills Corporation to develop its mega-mall and amusement park in exchange for a $27 million grant and a plan to preserve the area around it.

After decades of unregulated waste dumping, the Meadowlands has fought back to become one of New Jersey’s most incredible natural wonders and home to nearly three hundred bird species and an additional hundred marine life species. Apart from being one of the state’s principal economic hubs with its sports complex and the American mall, the Meadowlands now contains 3,500 acres of protected wetlands and only one 100-acre operating landfill. And although many people drive past it today, few see the real Meadowlands. The best way to experience the area’s natural hidden beauty is by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission’s boat tours or nature-guided walks along eight miles of walking trails.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the first Earth Day in 1970 did much to transform public attitudes toward cleaner earth. A poll conducted the following year showed a 2,500 percent increase from the year prior in the American public declaring that protecting the environment was an important goal. So as we celebrate yet another Earth Day, we can appreciate the 1970s Environmental Movement’s impact on our state. For if not for some key decisions with the environment in mind, the Garden State would surely look much different today.

Peter Zablocki is the co-host of the History Teachers Talking Podcast. For more information, visit www.peterzablocki.com.