Every year, the Alliance is engaged in many advocacy and legal battles with polluters and irresponsible developers. Many of these cases start with a tip from watchful residents like you. To better anticipate, recognize, and respond to development projects or other detrimental activities occurring in your communities, we need your help!
Become a Pinelands Liaison!
The Pinelands don’t lose ground all at once — they lose it meeting by meeting, application by application, in rooms most residents never think to walk into. Pinelands Liaisons are the people who show up to those rooms.
Open to anyone, at any age, a Pinelands Liaison is your town’s eyes and ears — the local point person who tracks what’s happening in their own backyard so the Pinelands Alliance doesn’t have to hear about a problem after the bulldozers arrive.
As a Pinelands Liaison, you’ll:
- Attend your local planning/zoning board and town council meetings, watching for development proposals, variance requests, or ordinance changes that could affect Pinelands lands and resources
- Flag anything of concern — permits that don’t add up, projects that skirt Comprehensive Management Plan protections, activity near wetlands or threatened and endangered species habitat
- Join a monthly check-in with Pinelands Alliance staff and fellow Liaisons to share updates, ask questions, and get support connecting what you’re seeing to the bigger regulatory picture
- Build relationships with your neighbors and local officials, so your community has an informed advocate already in the room when it matters
You don’t need a law degree or a background in land use — just a willingness to pay attention and ask questions. We’ll help with the rest.
Ready to become a Pinelands Liaison? Contact heidi@pinelandsalliance.org to get started.
TRAININGS are held monthly to hear updates and provide specific advocacy skills or conservation knowledge:
Save the date:
Building a Movement: Data Center Case Studies in South Jersey
October 7th at 12 noon and 7pm
Pinelands Alliance Public Lands Advocate Jason Howell will provide a master class on community organizing illustrated through our campaign to keep data centers out of the Pinelands. RSVP form coming soon!
Past Trainings:
Pinelands Alliance Data Center Information Session
September 9th: The recording will be available on our YouTube channel soon.
If you wouldn’t recognize your mayor in the grocery store, this is where you start. This comprehensive session will provide an on-ramp for people who want to learn more about data centers and local government in New Jersey. Pinelands Alliance Policy Director Heidi Yeh will show you how to make your voice count without needing a decade of municipal meeting experience first.
STAY INFORMED
Sign up for our emails to be notified about upcoming events and actions to take in and around the Pinelands! The monthly Action Alert comes out the first week of each month and is full of ways to take actions to protect the Pines, plus training sessions and events.
Questions? Contact Policy Director, Heidi Yeh by email at heidi@pinelandsalliance.org or call her at 609-859-8860 ext 122.
