Local citizens fought to protect a unique wild area within the New York metropolitan area that was threatened with conversion to a major jetport, demonstrating the power of grassroots environmental movements.
In 1959, the New York-New Jersey Port Authority
The controversy began on December 3, 1959, when The Newark Evening News published news of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority’s decision. According to the Port Authority, the four existing area airports—Kennedy (then known as Idlewild), LaGuardia, Newark, and Teterboro—were insufficient to meet future demand, which was projected to be 70 million passengers annually by the 1970’s. In proposing a new jetport in New Jersey, the Port Authority, a billion-dollar, bi-state agency that owned and controlled bridges, tunnels, and airports in the New York metropolitan area, planned to reach outside its legal boundaries. The new site would cover twice the area of Kennedy Airport.
Elected officials in northern New Jersey recognized the effects such a major facility would have on their constituencies: noise, traffic congestion, loss of property values, and possible damage to underground water supplies. Communities that had been planning for slow, steady growth over the next decades were faced with the possibility of uncontrollable, instant expansion.
Community response began with letters, telegrams, and phone calls to Governor Robert Meyner, to the Federal Aviation Agency, and to Austin J. Tobin, the executive director of the Port Authority. Municipal governments and community organizations sent formal resolutions to the New Jersey legislature condemning the jetport. Although there was support for the expansion of the Port Authority into Morris County to enable it to extend a rapid-transit system through Morris, Somerset, Mercer, and Passaic Counties, legislators who had proposed this expansion chose not to push their bills at the time. Congressman Peter Frelinghuysen, Jr., rapidly acquired the backing of elected officials at all levels in the five counties of his congressional district to oppose jetport construction on the Great Swamp site.
Local citizens recognized that they needed to develop a plan to protect the swamp permanently. Local newspapers, as well as The Newark News and other regional presses, began detailed coverage of the issue. Within two weeks, Governor Meyner’s mail was running 836 to 5 against the jetport.
According to the Port Authority, fourteen sites had been evaluated, and only the Great Swamp site had been found to meet all criteria. It was argued that although several communities would be decimated and about seven hundred homes, several churches, schools, and small businesses would be destroyed, the jetport would bring tremendous economic advantages to the area in the form of Port Authority tax payments, increased employment from airport and constructions jobs, and development of business around the new facility.
The Great Swamp had been created through a series of geologic events occurring over a period of almost 170 million years. After volcanic action laid the bedrock and glacial scouring set the drainage pattern for the area, glacial Lake Passaic was formed; when it eventually drained, it left a seven-mile bowl at its lowest point. Over thousands of years, plant communities evolved there. In 1959, the Great Swamp ecosystem included bottomland hardwood swamps and surrounding mixed hardwood forests, meadows, pastures, and farmland. Some of the area had already been drained in the 1930’s by a Works Progress Administration (WPA) flood-control project, and homes had been built along country roads that bordered the swamp.
The key to the success of what became a nine-year battle to protect the swamp lay in the campaign’s diversity. The group pulled together by Frelinghuysen formed a political steering committee. A citizen’s advisory council was created and chaired by George K. Batt
The political and legislative players sought legal recourse to prevent the construction, communities that would be affected hired consultants to study the socioeconomic effects, and the citizens concerned solely with protection of the swamp mobilized as well. While politicians lobbied in Trenton, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., conservationists forged partnerships with agencies, foundations, and organizations that shared their concern for the Great Swamp ecosystem. Through the involvement of Marcellus Hartley Dodge, a local resident whose family estate was targeted by the jetport, these concerned citizens eventually joined the North American Wildlife Foundation
Through negotiations between the NAWF and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife,
In September, 1960, the first gift of one thousand acres was deeded to the NAWF, to be turned over eventually to the Department of the Interior. In June, 1961, John S. Gottschalk, then regional director of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, met with leaders of the conservation group and a reporter for The Newark Evening News and agreed to support their plans.
By July, 1962, the group had still not acquired the entire three thousand acres needed. That month, Governor Meyner set a public hearing on Senate Bill 218, which prohibited establishment of a jetport in Morris and six other northern New Jersey counties. The bill had been passed by 18 to 0 and 33 to 3 votes, in the state senate and assembly, respectively, and more than six hours of testimony had been predominantly in favor of the bill. Nevertheless, the governor indicated that the bill was unconstitutional (according to many attorneys, it was not) and vetoed it.
At the same time that local citizens and their elected officials struggled to gain political and economic support for the protection of the Great Swamp, and as conservationists strove to consolidate their holdings, the Port Authority continued to pursue its plan. The overbearing and noncooperative response of August Tobin, the executive director of the Port Authority, eventually landed the authority under official investigation by both the New Jersey legislature and the U.S. Congress, with contempt citations voted against Tobin and others. Subcommittee members investigating the authority found examples of kickbacks, favoritism, undue influence, freeloading, and patronage. Despite minor changes within the agency, however, the investigations did little to deter the Port Authority.
At the same time, a number of reports had concluded that a new jetport in the New Jersey-New York metropolitan area would not be needed for at least ten years, and probably not until well into the 1980’s. One report concluded that the Morris County site would be difficult and costly to develop, that the results would not meet all noise abatement and safety requirements, and that the impact on surrounding communities would cause major disruption. Another report pointed out that the local area was already positioned for positive economic growth over the next twenty years and that the proposed jetport would not only stimulate unnecessary and undesirable growth but also have adverse impact on the area around the Great Swamp. These reports provided substantial detailed information, much of which was absent from, and contradictory to, reports prepared by the Port Authority in support of the site.
In 1960, the first lands were accepted by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and management of the refuge officially began. Before the end of 1962, incoming governor Richard Hughes endorsed the establishment of a wildlife refuge and signed the bill prohibiting the jetport construction. By 1963, the state had provided $25,000 from its Green Acres conservation program to purchase additional acreage. On May 29, 1964, the Great Swamp Committee of the NAWF officially presented Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall
Threats to the swamp continued from land-use decisions outside its official boundaries. For that reason, the Great Swamp Committee evolved into the Great Swamp Watershed Association Foundation, which would continue to guard the land. The citizens involved in the “jetport war” learned that ecological protection requires commitment, organization, technical expertise, and constant vigilance. Concerned citizens would continue to affect local and state zoning and help revise regulations for the area.
The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge remains a viable ecosystem, with a wealth of plant and wildlife species that are viewed by around 350,000 visitors annually. While the Port Authority never officially gave up on the Great Swamp site, it eventually authorized major expansion and redevelopment for Newark Airport, which handled the traffic adequately.
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Cavanaugh, Cam. Saving the Great Swamp: The People, the Power Brokers, and an Urban Wilderness. Frenchtown, N.J.: Columbia, 1978. Presents the entire story of the struggle between the Port Authority and the citizens of northern New Jersey. Comprehensive, but somewhat confusing in organization. A must read for anyone truly interested in the issues. -
Chase, E. T. “How to Rescue New York from Its Port Authority.” Harper’s Magazine 220 (June, 1960): 67-74. Journalistic coverage of the Port Authority. Provides information on the role and the responsibilities of the Port Authority and examples of how the authority might be overstepping its bounds. -
Morris, Joe Alex. “Jetport Showdown in New Jersey.” Saturday Evening Post 233 (December 17, 1960): 29. An article that conservationists hoped would support their cause but that actually did more to support development of the land as a jetport than as a refuge. -
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge Briefing Summary. Basking Ridge, N.J.: Author, 1990. This Fish and Wildlife Service document outlines the history and the controversy surrounding the establishment of the refuge, describes the area, and provides information on the ecological and social environment of the area. A clear summary of an event otherwise documented only in scattered and ephemeral materials. -
_______. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge: Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes. Washington, D.C.: Author, 2005. Another official Fish and Wildlife Service document, summarizing the status of cold-blooded species living within the refuge as of September, 2005.
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