The Pine Barrens
New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation which is filled with car-clogged shopping malls and is cursed with pungent perfume of oil refineries and chemical companies. No doubt, it also has a unique environment and is graced with refuges like the Delaware River Valley and the Pine Barrens.
Dr. Costanza, Matthew Wilson and Austin Troy along with staff members at New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection carried a study on the environmental assets of various places in New Jersey. Under this, wetlands, forests and other aspects of the environment were studied. The study was financed by two foundations which gave $200,000 in grants to the state.
The cost of providing artificial equivalents of services the natural world provides was also assessed. The cost necessitated by damage to the environment and the price, people would be willing to pay for outdoor recreation was also considered.
A dollar value has been placed on the services provided by the natural resources in New Jersey. The researchers calculated values for each type of natural resource like freshwater wetlands ($11,568 an acre a year), croplands ($866), grasslands ($77) and urban green spaces ($2,473).
Sandy Hook Beach
Based on their ability to provide the Earth with water, animal habitat and pollination, the environmental value of Pine Barrens (New Jersey is a beautiful and fascinating region) is estimated to be about $1,476 an acre a year.
Sandy Hook and Sea Girt are the beaches that have environmentally essential sand dunes which raise their environmental value (highest) to $42,000 per acre per year. Florida’s wetlands are worth $11.3 billion each year. The coast and far southern reaches of the state tended to have the most environmental value exceeding $8,000 an acre a year.
Previously, the environmental value was calculated on a per-year basis but presently it is calculated by dividing the annual value by 0.03. By this method beaches at $42,147 per acre per year, would be worth $1.4 million per acre in today’s dollars, and forests at $1476 per acre per year, $49,200.
Sea Girt Beach
Environmentalists and regulators plan to use such figures as ammunition against developers aiming to build in forests or to boost arguments for environmental regulations or preservation money from state legislatures.
It is to conclude that New Jersey’s total natural capital is worth about $18 billion per year.
In Vermont, legislation is also drafted to establish a trust to collect fees from the polluters. Among other things, the money thus collected would be used to pay the owners of private land to keep it forested.
Only the time will show whether the dollar value given to the natural assets in New Jersey will prove beneficial or not.
Source: The New York Times
