Americans often think of New Jersey as an environmental nightmare. As seen from its infamous turnpike, which is how many travelers experience the Garden State, it is difficult not to be troubled by the wealth of industrial plants, belching smokestacks, and hills upon hills of landfills. Yet those living and working in New Jersey often experience a very different environment. Despite its dense population and urban growth, two-thirds of the state remains covered in farmland and forest, and New Jersey has a larger percentage of land dedicated to state parks and forestland than the average for all states. It is this ecological paradox that makes New Jersey important for understanding the relationship between Americans and their natural world.

In New Jersey's Environments, historians, policy-makers, and earth scientists use a case study approach to uncover the causes and consequences of decisions regarding land use, resources, and conservation. Nine essays consider topics ranging from solid waste and wildlife management to the effects of sprawl on natural disaster preparedness. The state is astonishingly diverse and faces more than the usual competing interests from environmentalists, citizens, and businesses.

This book documents the innovations and compromises created on behalf of and in response to growing environmental concerns in New Jersey, all of which set examples on the local level for nationwide and worldwide efforts that share the goal of protecting the natural world.

Neil M. Maher is an assistant professor in the federated department of history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Newark.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Tending the Turnpike: Why New Jersey Nature Matters
Part I: History and Contexts
Chapter 1: A Natural History of the Life and Death of a Great American City: Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1850-2000
Bryant Simon
Chapter 2: Solid Waste Management in "The Garbage State:" New Jersey's Transformation from Landfilling to Incineration
Eileen McGurty
Part II: Policy and Law
Chapter 3: Oysters, Public Trust, and the Law in New Jersey
Bonnie J. McCay
Chapter 4: Citizen Expertise and Citizen Action in the Creation of the Freshwater Wetlands
Heather M. Fenyk and David H. Guston
Chapter 5: The Free Fishing controversy of Sussex County, New Jersey
Robert W. Reynolds
Part III: New Jersey Environments Today
Chapter 6: Tracking New Jersey's Changing Landscape
Richard Lathrop and John Hasse
Chapter 7: Evaluating the Effects of Historical Landscape Change on New Jersey's Weather and Climate
Paul S. Wichansky, Christopher P. Weaver, Louis Steyaert, and Robert L. Walko
Chapter 8: A Century of Natural Disasters in a State of Changing Vulnerability: New Jersey, 1900-1999
James K. Mitchell
Notes on Contributors
Index