Dear Editor:
Liberty State Park’s wintering waterfowl have gone north, the spring migration has passed through, and now dozens of species are nesting – the adults producing a sweet chorus of territorial birdsong.
We’re lucky to have places like LSP to refresh our souls with sky and water, space and silence, grass and trees and wildlife. (We’re also lucky, thanks to the N.J. Division of Fish and Wildlife, to have a live video of the life cycle of peregrine falcons. If you go now to the outdoor plaza of 101 Hudson St. at Exchange Pl. in Jersey City, you can see three peregrine chicks nesting atop 101 Hudson.)
But we can’t take these windows into nature for granted. For years, the Friends of Liberty State Park have been fending off the inappropriate and invasive ideas (golf course, water slides) of the Liberty State Park Development Corporation.
The good news is that N.J. Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell has called for a review of the need for the Corporation, which also has been accused of shorting the state on its share of park rental fees.
The bad news is that the state hasn’t taken final action to rid us of the Development Corporation. I want to be able to wander through the park looking for yellow-crowned night herons and back and white warblers without worrying what’s the next nutty Corporation scheme to take it all away from us.
Please write Gov. James McGreevey, P.O. Box 001, Trenton, N.J. 08625 and ask him to terminate the state’s contract with LSP Development Corporation.
Dan North