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Ecotourism: A Natural Alternative for Exploring New Jersey

by Kim Kosko

While New Jersey's coastal tourism industry clearly depends on conventional attractions and activities like its beaches, boardwalks, and family resorts, there is a growing trend toward ecotourism, a travel alternative expected to explode in the next millennium.

What exactly is ecotourism? Broadly defined, it's responsible travel that encompasses natural and cultural resources, while conserving and sustaining environments and local economies. Ecotours recognize the priceless value of natural, cultural and heritage resources that serve to relieve the stress borne of the frantic pace of modern life, places where rest and rehabilitation are important commodities. Ecotourism often encompasses the cultural fabric of a location, so that such widely divergent themes as maritime history, historic sailing vessels, light houses, nature centers, aquaria, fish ports, sea ports, historic coastal communities, and decoy carving are all components. Ecotourism can involve birding, hiking, biking, canoeing, hunting, and fishing.

(top) The Great Hall on Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants entered the US, is a popular cultural Mecca for tourists passing through Northern NJ; (top right) The Hackensack Meadowlands surrounded by the nearby NY skyline offers visitors an interesting view of urban ecotourism; (bottom right) The Lakota Wolf Preserve, a stunning natural habitat for wolves in Northern NJ, recently won the Governor's Tourism Award for Best Ecotourism Site.

In a recent survey, more than eight million Americans responded that they had already taken an ecotour, and an additional 35 million said they were likely to do so in the next three years. The International Ecotourism Society estimated that nature travel grew by 20 to 25% between 1990 and 1995. And in 1992, ecotourism generated more than two billion dollars in national revenues.

According to the Division of Travel and Tourism, the tourist economy is New Jersey's number one economic sector. It accounted for more than $26 billion dollars to tourist establishments in 1991.

How can ecotourism contribute to this economic sector? As a singular example, New Jersey's coast is an important, even vital, stop in the global migration of many birds. Delaware Bay shorebird migration viewing opportunities brings $31 million annually to Cape May County. Dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals make seasonal stops at various refuges along the Jersey shore, creating a wave of new business opportunities for whale watching and other educational boating excursions.

Cultural opportunities also abound; ecotourists can visit cranberry bogs, historic forts, mansions and hotels, learn about glass-making and ironwork techniques from New Jersey's Revolutionary War era, and learn more about the cultural rituals and riches throughout the state's coastal regions. Habitats in New Jersey range from sandy beaches to dynamic salt marshes to dense maritime forests. These environments provide ecotourists a chance to visit barrier islands, wetlands, estuaries, bays and rivers, all of which serve as homes to exceptionally diverse groups of plant and animal life.

With its 127 miles of coastline, it is clear that ecotourism has great potential in the coastal zone of New Jersey, not only for its various attractions, but also for its potential to create new jobs and help local economies. And this holds true for a significant portion of the state.

	(top) There are almost 61,000 acres of water in New Jersey and 127 miles of Atlantic coastline for canoeing and other aquatic activities; (top right) Barnegat Lighthouse, or “Old Barney” is a cultural treasure nestled within one of New Jersey's most important watersheds, Barnegat Bay; (bottom right) Snowy egrets are a common sight throughout coastal New Jersey.

While northern coastal New Jersey is far more developed than the southern region, there are equally important opportunities in this industrial heartland. The Gateway National Recreation Area and Coastal Heritage Trail Routes are important, as are Watchable Wildlife Sites located in Highlands, Liberty State Science Center and Park and Cheesequake State Park. Public access and travel by automobile are readily available and the area's population density make this region ripe for ecotourism.

New Jersey's interest in cultivating and promoting ecotourism became evident two years ago. Governor Christine Whitman appointed Dr. Michael P. Weinstein, President of the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium and Director of its New Jersey Sea Grant College Program to serve as the first-ever Representative of the Ecotourism Sector for the New Jersey Tourism Advisory Council. The Council is made up of 17 members who represent the needs of the tourist industry. Weinstein, who is a champion of coastal ecotourism efforts in New Jersey, will serve a 3-year term. "Ecotourism has tremendous potential in New Jersey in the form of linking cultural heritage with natural resources,"said Weinstein. "It combines the Governor's Open Space Initiative with the real potential to be economically significant to citizens of New Jersey."

With this in mind, in late 1998, NJMSC's NJ Sea Grant College Program decided to create a series of three innovative guides designed to help residents and visitors discover and appreciate the State's natural and cultural coastal resources. The project required an interactive approach among NJMSC, county, state, and federal staff, and representatives from the private sector to identify, collect, organize, and prioritize ecotourism opportunities. Steering Committees, representing various stakeholders from southern, central, and northern New Jersey were formed to take on this task for their respective regions and recommend final form and content. Periodic meetings, facilitated by NJMSC, identified appropriate material, established priorities, and selected text and graphics for the guides

The first publication in the series, A Coastal Ecotourism Guide to Southern New Jersey, was released in the fall of 1999, and focused on attractions in the seven counties included in the State's coastal watershed from south of Great Egg Harbor around the tip of Cape May and up to the City of Camden. A Coastal Ecotourism Guide to Central New Jersey, published in the spring of 2000 covered sites in Central New Jersey primarily Ocean and Monmouth County north of Great Bay to Long Branch, New Jersey. The final guide in the series, A Coastal Ecotourism Guide to Northern New Jersey released in the fall of 2000 highlights historical, cultural and natural coastal attractions from Sandy Hook north to the Hudson-River Estuary, and along the Delaware River.

	(top) Bird watching generates millions of ecotourism dollars in Cape May, NJ; (right) New Jersey's coastal region offers miles of scenic paths and routes for cyclists.

Each guide contains a user-friendly, color-coded, map with a numerical listing of nearly 100 selected natural and cultural sites throughout the State's coastal watersheds. The listings include brief site descriptions and amenities information like parking, rest room and handicapped accessibility. The guides also offers a web site address and phone number contact section, a bibliography, points of interest for hiking, biking, canoeing and kayaking in the region, and special sections on the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route and listings of annual ecotourism-related events.

Cooperating partners in the series included The NJ Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, NJ Department of Travel and Tourism, Cumberland County, Public Service Electric and Gas Company, GPU, Inc., The Monmouth County Department of Economic Growth and Development and the Ocean County Board of Freeholders.

The response to series has been extremely favorable. More than 200,000 copies were printed and distributed within months of the initial print run. New funding partners are now being sought to reprint enough copies to keep up with the demand. The huge database of ecotourism information amassed to create the series is now being used by the New Jersey Department of Travel and Tourism to create a special booklet on ecotourism that will include a special section on the NJMSC Coastal Ecotourism Guide series. The State expects to print and distribute hundreds of thousands of copies of the booklet during the summer of 2001.

One of the primary goals of NJMSC and its Sea Grant College Program is to foster in travelers an attitude of increased responsibility to New Jersey's natural resources, highlighting the ever increasing need for sustainability. Hopefully, this and similar efforts initiated by NJMSC in the future will help lay important groundwork for establishing the state as a leader in the region's ecotourism industry.

[5/7/01]

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