2014 Hall of Fame Inductees
Dave Moore
Dave Moore is a visionary and a pioneer in the effort to protect land in New Jersey. He has helped create organizations like New Jersey Future, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, the Highlands Coalition and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. He served as Director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) from 1969 to 1999. During his tenure over 77,000 acres were preserved as public open space. Under his leadership, NJCF was also a major force behind the Pinelands Protection Act, the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act, Coastal Area Facility Review Act, State Planning Act, Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act and others. Dave is a founding PPA board member and served as chair from 2000 to 2014.
Michael Catania
Michael Catania has been involved in the preservation, restoration or stewardship of more than 65,500 acres throughout the Garden State. He began his career as an attorney with the Office of Legislative Services where he drafted many of New Jersey’s conservation and environmental laws including the Pinelands Protection Act. As state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, he was instrumental in the protection of thousands of acres in the Pinelands National Reserve. More recently he played a key role in the protection of the 4,200-acre Lenape Farms in Egg Harbor Township. Michael currently serves as executive director of Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ.
2012 Hall of Fame Inductees
Ted Gordon
A graduate of Rutgers University and a past president of the Philadelphia Botanical Society (1988–2000), Ted Gordon is a leading authority on the habitats and flora of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Ted has more than 35 years experience in botanical studies, including contributions to major plant studies of endangered species in the Pinelands. Ted conducts rare species surveys and research, monitors habitats, and designs management plans for the conservation and enhancement of rare plants. Since 1990, Ted has been an instructor in the Rutgers University Short Course, teaching wetland plant species identification to professional consultants. After chairing the Forestry Advisory Committee of the Pinelands Commission for ten years, Ted served as a Pinelands Commissioner from 1999 to 2002.
Jeanne Woodford
Jeanne and her mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Woodford, began rehabilitating wildlife when a baby great horned owl was dropped off at their Medford home. It wasn’t long before the Woodford’s kitchen turned into a wildlife hospital that eventually became Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge. After her mother’s death Jeanne took over management of the Refuge and in 1997 she was able to permanently preserve the 170 acres of prime Pine Barrens habitat where the Refuge resides. Saving the Refuge for wildlife is perhaps Jeanne’s greatest accomplishment. Today Cedar Run is the largest wildlife rehabilitation center in the region caring for nearly 4,000 injured or abandoned wild animals and their Education Center provides environmental education to over 20,000 children and adults each year.
2010 Hall of Fame Inductees
Richard Sullivan
Richard J. Sullivan’s impact on New Jersey’s environmental resources cannot be overstated. He has been described by some as the “dean of New Jersey environmentalists.” Richard was New Jersey’s first commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection and was the second chairman of the Pinelands Commission, serving for ten years. Former Executive Director of the Pinelands Commission Terrence Moore said, “Richard is one of the most respected public officials this State has been fortunate to have in its government. His sense of fair play, integrity, and commitment to safeguarding our environmental resources continually earns admiration from all with whom he works.”
Betty Wilson
Betty Wilson has devoted most of her career to serving the public, and much of that work has been dedicated to protecting the Pinelands and New Jersey’s environment. From 1976 to 1980, Betty served as Assistant Commissioner for Regional Projects and then First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). In the late 1980’s Betty was engaged by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation as a consultant to assist with the creation of an advocacy group for the Pinelands, resulting in the formation of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA). Betty was appointed to the Pinelands Commission by Governor McGreevey in 2002. In 2005 Governor Codey appointed Betty Chair of the Commission, a position she held until she stepped down in 2008.
2010 Honorees in Education: Terry Loy of Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge and Susan Girard of Burlington County College’s PINES program were also honored.
2008 Hall of Fame Inductees
David Fairbrothers
Dr. David Fairbrothers’ diverse body of work has had a tremendous impact on the preservation of flora in the state of New Jersey. Dr. Fairbrothers is Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. He also served as Curator of the Chrysler Herbarium from 1954 to 1988. The herbarium’s collections of Pinelands flora provided much of the documentation necessary for Congress to establish the Pinelands National Reserve. The collections also provided essential support for the United Nations to designate the Pinelands National Reserve an International Biosphere Reserve in 1983. Dr. Fairbrothers and other researchers used Chrysler Herbarium specimens to produce the first State list of Rare and Endangered Plants in the United States (1973). This publication was significant in helping persuade the United States Congress to enact the first U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973.
Richard T. T. Forman
Dr. Forman taught at Rutgers University from 1966 to 1984, where he directed the Botany (and Plant Physiology) Graduate Program for four years and served as Director of the Hutcheson Memorial Forest Center from 1972 to 1984. It was during this time that he edited the book Pine Barrens: Ecosystem and Landscape. This book brought together the work of 41 experts who covered topics such as people in the landscape, vegetation, geology, hydrology, animal communities and much more. Published in 1979, the book came out just in time to serve as one of the major resources for the creation of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan, the nation’s foremost ecosystem-based land use planning system. The timing was perfect, as the book in its entirety makes the case for the Pine Barrens of New Jersey to be viewed as a landscape. In fact, Chapter 33, titled The Pine Barrens of New Jersey: An Ecological Mosaic and authored by Dr. Forman, is arguably the original publication of modern landscape ecology.
Robert Zampella
Dr. Robert Zampella was the first Chief Scientist for the New Jersey’s Pinelands Commission. During his tenure, Robert developed the Pinelands Commission’s science program into a powerhouse of ecological research. The program’s scientists have published numerous articles in peer-reviewed science journals, which is unusual for a government agency. Dr. Zampella also played a key role in the development of the original Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP), the regional land use document that governs preservation and development in the Pinelands National Reserve. One of the great strengths of the Pinelands CMP is its firm grounding in environmental science, and Dr. Zampella’s work enabled the Pinelands Commission to continue adjusting the CMP in light of the growing body of research on the region’s unique ecology and human impacts on the ecosystem.
2008 Honorees in Education: Phil Levy, Lacey Township High School and Julie Akers, Cunningham Alternative School in Vineland and a founder of the Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association.
2007 Hall of Fame Inductees
Nan Hunter Walnut
Nan Hunter-Walnut was a founding member of the Pine Barrens Coalition, one of the first recognized organizations dedicated to protecting the Pine Barrens ecosystem. In 1977 Governor Brendan Byrne placed a moratorium on development in the Pinelands and established the Pinelands Review Committee to plan and coordinate state actions to protect the Pine Barrens. The Governor selected Nan to work on the task of delineating the Pinelands boundaries for protection during this contentious time. Not one to shy away from her civic responsibilities, Nan was the first woman and the first environmentalist on the planning board for Southampton Township. She served from 1978 to 2003. She was made chairwoman of the planning board after 20 years of service. Nan was a founding board member of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and was a staunch advocate for preservation before the Pinelands Commission.
Janet Jackson Gould
Janet Jackson-Gould spent 20 years as a member of New Jersey Audubon Society’s board, three of them as president. During the late 1970s-early 1980s she was an active member of the Pine Barrens Coalition, the leading local citizens’ group that worked to protect the Pines through the adoption of the federal and state Pinelands laws. In this capacity, Janet worked with Nan Hunter-Walnut to involve the public, gain publicity and pressure the politicians to bring the dream of protecting the Pinelands to reality. Janet was curator of education at the Philadelphia Zoo for twelve years, founding director of “Outside-In,” the children’s museum at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and assistant director of the Please Touch Museum. Janet served first as a volunteer and then as executive director of the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford.
Elmer Rowley
Col. Elmer C. Rowley, USMRC, grew up in the High Sierras of California. Elmer was commissioned in the US Marine Corps in 1935 and served in active duty and the reserves until 1973. In 1962 Elmer, his wife Thelma, and their two sons moved to Centennial Pines in Medford. They fell in love with the Pine Barrens. In the mid-1960’s Elmer joined the Pine Barrens Conservationists, one of the first recognized organizations dedicated to protecting the Pine Barrens ecosystem. Elmer was a strong and tireless advocate for the Pine Barrens in his capacity as a board member of the New Jersey Audubon Society and later as board president from 1973 to 1975. When Elmer joined the board of NJAS, he quickly became the Society’s lead spokesman for Pinelands preservation. He took the message to the nation’s capital, attending several committee meetings of the U.S. House and Senate as a representative of NJAS.
2007 Honorees in Education: George Young, Terry O’Leary, Christine Raabe
2006 Hall of Fame Inductees
Franklin Parker
Franklin Parker was appointed the first Chair of the Pinelands Commission in 1979 by Governor Brendan Byrne. It was not an easy assignment. Bitterly opposed by some communities and leaders, the Pinelands Protection Act required the Commission to develop and adopt a comprehensive land use management plan for over 1 million acres of the nation’s most crowded state – a plan that would preserve and enhance the region’s unique natural resources, while also allowing compatible development and protecting a deeply embedded agricultural tradition. Beryl Robichaud Collins described Frank at this time as “a low-key individual with an unusual ability to defuse highly politicized situations and to steer group deliberations constructively on complex issues.” It is a tribute to Frank’s leadership that the Commission ultimately voted 11 to 4 in favor of adopting the Plan, which radically changed the way land is regulated in almost ¼ of the state of New Jersey. Frank served as Chair of the Commission until 1988, working the Terry Moore and other Commissioners to ensure continuity during the Plan’s first decade.
Terrence C. Moore
In 1979, Terry was appointed by Governor Brendan Byrne as the first Executive Director of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission. During his tenure, the Commission was constituted, the Comprehensive Management Plan was written and adopted, and the Pinelands Commission implemented the Plan through 20 sometimes turbulent years. Under Terry’s guidance, the Plan incorporated a truly regional vision and deployed a wide range of strategies such as municipal conformance, a strong transferable development rights program, protection of threatened and endangered species habitats, rigorous scientific monitoring and density transfer mechanisms. Terry became famous for his dry humor, his skill at diffusing tense situations at public meetings over the Commission’s work, and his extraordinary ability to get (at least) the “8 votes” needed for the Commission to take action. With Terry’s leadership, the Pinelands Plan won general acceptance and support over the years. Terry served as the Commission’s Executive Director from 1979 to 1999.
2005 Hall of Fame Inductees
Governor Brendan T. Byrne
Brendan Byrne served as Governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982. He had many accomplishments as Governor. Foremost among these in the minds of many was the passage of the Pinelands Protection Act and the launching of the Pinelands Commission and Comprehensive Management Plan. As Governor, Brendan Byrne led the effort to save the Pinelands. From the beginning of these efforts, he and his administration worked to create a strong regional planning agency and a regional plan based on the fundamental goal of protecting the Pinelands’ natural resources. While pressing for passage of the Pinelands Protection Act, Gov. Byrne issued Executive Order 71, a bold measure that imposed a moratorium on development over a vast area until the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan could be adopted. Gov. Byrne appointed the first Chair of the Pinelands Commission, Franklin Parker, and its first Executive Director, Terry Moore, providing the Commission with the leadership it needed to institute the groundbreaking development control measures embodied in the Comprehensive Management Plan.
Governor James J. Florio
Jim Florio served three terms in the New Jersey General Assembly and in 1974, he was elected to Congress to represent the 1st District of New Jersey. During this time, then Congressman Florio introduced legislation to create a 970,000-acre Pine Barrens Ecological Reserve. This bill evolved into what became Section 502 of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, the federal legislation that created the Pinelands National Reserve and set out the principles on which the region’s natural resources should be protected through a comprehensive land use management plan. The following year, New Jersey adopted the Pinelands Protection Act of 1979, which fulfilled the goals of the federal legislation by creating the Pinelands Commission and charging it with writing and implementing the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. During his years in Congress, he also authored the act popularly known as the “Superfund” law, our nation’s primary program for cleaning up hazardous waste sites. Jim Florio was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1990. As Governor, he carried his concern with environmental protection into his administration. In addition to many important reforms, he was responsible for signing into law the Clean Water Enforcement Act, one of the strongest laws of its type in the nation.
2005 Honorees in Education: Maureen Barrett, Richard Prickett
2004 Hall of Fame Inductees
Howard Boyd
An entomologist, botanist, editor, teacher, photographer, filmmaker, writer, and naturalist, Howard P. Boyd had a close association with the Pine Barrens of New Jersey spanning more than 65 years. In 1969, after 31 years as an executive with The Boy Scouts of America, he retired, and had very successful careers as an author and in entomology. He was considered one of the world’s leading experts on tiger beetles. Three of Howard’s books have helped raise awareness of the Pinelands ecosystem both regionally and nationally. A Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey is recognized as the most authoritative and widely referenced field guide to New Jersey Pinelands flora and fauna. His other books are A PineBarrens Odyssey: A Naturalist’s Year in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, Wildflowers of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, and The Ecological Pine Barrens of New Jersey: An Ecosystem Threatened by Fragmentation.
Beryl Robichaud Collins
Beryl Robichaud Collins was best known in the Pinelands region as the author and editor of important works on the history of the Pinelands protection movement and the natural resources of New Jersey. With Emily Russell, Beryl edited and wrote much of Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands: A New Direction in Land-Use Management (Rutgers University Press, 1988), the bible and indispensable reference on the extraordinary sequence of events leading to the adoption of the Pinelands Protection Act and Comprehensive Management Plan. With Karl Anderson, Beryl wrote the highly regarded Plant Communities of New Jersey: A Study in Landscape Diversity (Rutgers University Press, 1994). Both books remain in print and continue to provide a rich source of information and inspiration for conservationists both regionally and nationally. As a researcher at Rutgers University, she was a key member of a team of scientists who helped spur national recognition of the Pinelands’ unique natural resources thereby shaping the course of the federal and state Pinelands protection program. Beryl authored A Conceptual Framework for Pinelands Decision-Making for the Pinelands Commission, a source for several basic resource protection strategies now embodied in the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan.
2004 Honorees in Education: Dayna Mennen (Angelozzi), Ron Smith, John Volpa