SANDYSTON – A resolution is being prepared in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate which would put the state Legislature on record opposing the redesignation of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

The resolution is being proposed by District 24 state Sen. Parker Space and Assembly members Dawn Fantasia and Michael Inganamort and will collectively call the redesignation proposal “unnecessary and unwanted” by residents in northwestern New Jersey.

Inganamort attended a Saturday information session on the proposal via Zoom and told the crowd that the resolution was being prepared.

On Monday, he said, “You really have to hand it to Sandy Hull and the Delaware Water Gap Defense Fund for their 24/7advocacy to protect the Water Gap as it is. It was a pleasure to join this meeting virtually and I look forward to partnering with them in their advocacy.

“Part and parcel, we’ll be going to our colleagues in the Legislature to explain why this designation is unnecessary and unwise,” he wrote.

Space noted the proposed change “is not necessary and would upset the recreation area’s original mission and still puts uses such as hunting and farming at risk. A new designation that translates into prohibitions and restrictions on currently allowable activities in the recreation area would have a negative impact on our region.”

Fantasia, who is in her first term in the Assembly, recalled that in her previous elected position as a Sussex County commissioner, that board “officially opposed this redesignation for multiple reasons. The fear that this redesignation will disregard the rights of local property owners, and eminent domain will be used by the federal government to acquire private and State property adjacent to the Delaware Water Gap.”

Nearby on the northern end of the recreation area are state-owned High Point State Park and Stokes State Forest. At the southern end of the park in Warren County is Worthington State Forest, which visitors to the park must drive through along Old Mine Road.  

Any redesignation of the park must be approved by an act of Congress and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, whose Congressional district crosses northern New Jersey and includes the northern half of the recreation area, has also expressed opposition to any redesignation.

“As I’ve said from day one, designation of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as a National Park requires significant local input because it directly impacts many North Jersey townships, boroughs, and residents,” he said in a written statement.

“I have full confidence in the mayors and local governments of the Fifth District and their ability to best represent the views of our constituents. Based on input from local officials and residents, it does not seem that the proposal has the necessary local support to move forward,” he added.

Pennsylvania Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-8, and New Jersey Rep. Thomas Kean Jr., D-7, have also expressed concerns about the redesignation campaign and expressed support for the “No Park” movement. Kean’s district includes the southern half of the recreational area and Cartwright’s district includes all but a tiny part of the Pennsylvania side of the park.

There were about 70 people who attended the Saturday session in person at the Sandyston Municipal Building. Numbers of those attending via Zoom were not available.

The redesignation proposal is being pushed by John Donahue, who retired from the National Park Service as superintendent of the recreation area. His website also claims support from Sierra Clubs in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well as other environmental groups such as the Appalachian Mountain Club and the New Jersey Highlands Coalition.

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His revised proposal would designate the Delaware River and some of the land on both sides of the river, as the National Park, while the remainder of the nearly 70,000 acres of the park would be designated a national preserve.

The park stretches from near the New York- Pennsylvania border downriver to just south of the geological formation known as the Delaware Water Gap, an opening in the Kittatinny Ridge which allows the river to continue south.

The northern peak of the gap is known as Mount Tammany, while the Pennsylvania side peak is called Mount Minsi.

The 70,000 acres of land and water actually have within its borders three designated units of the park service. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail runs along the Kittatinny Ridge and crosses the river at the gap, before continuing south.

The river itself is also designated the Middle Delaware Recreational and Scenic River. While a separate unit of the NPS, the river is part of the recreational area’s administrative responsibility.

The revised proposal for the Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve eliminates the recreational and scenic river as a separate unit and includes the river within the national park designation. The remainder of the land would get the “preserve” designation.

In 2023, the recreation was the 17th-most-visited unit, with more than 4.2 million “recreation visits”, a decline of 173,684 recorded visits, or 3.9%, from 2022. 

While there was dip in numbers last year, it was still nearly 25% higher than the 2019 attendance of 3.37 million. In 2022, the recreation area ranked 14th on the NPS list, and ranked 15th in 2021.

Should the recreation area get redesignation, Donahue said his goal is “to place this gem of our national heritage into the jeweled crown of the national park system where it has always belonged.”

And, his website claims, redesignation as a ‘national park’ would be the first in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and increase visitation. It would also eliminate the farmland on either side of the river, allowing the forests to reclaim the land.

Those fields are currently leased by the NPS to local farmers for field crops such as corn, hay and soybeans, and there are strict regulations for “no till,” meaning the fields are not plowed and use of pesticides and fertilizers is highly regulated.

One lesee, however, said that if the land is allowed to go fallow – no further crops grown – it will be taken over by non-native and invasive species long before forests would get a chance to stretch onto the land.

Among other “Our Park” talking points are increased prestige which the group claims will mean increased funding, and increased visitation.

Local impact

While local businesses do get trade from visitors, the amount of vehicles creates traffic jams on weekends, said local mayors at Saturday’s meeting.

Lafayette Mayor Alan Henderson said traffic on Route 15, a main route which leads from eastern New Jersey across mid-Sussex County, linking with Route 206 which provides entry to the park, backs up on weekends.

Milford, Pennsylvania, is at the northern end of the park, where Mayor Sean Strub said, “there’s only three ways in or out of the borough, and on weekends (traffic is) at a standstill” and many are large recreation vehicles which drive across lawns as they make turns.

He also noted that the Route 209 bridge over the Sawkill Creek (within park boundaries) is crumbling and there are no plans from the park service to repair or replace it.

Sandyston Mayor George Harper Jr. said he remembers how the park was created when land was “grabbed for Tocks Island.” The island was the name of a project to build a multi-use dam on the Delaware River by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

Most of what is now the Water Gap park was purchased or taken by the government for not only the lake behind the dam, but for surrounding acreage which would become a “recreation area” around that lake. The burgeoning environmental movement of the 1960s forced the government to abandon the dam and the land was converted into what is today’s 70,000-acre recreation area.

“I see no benefit to Sandyston to take this from a recreation area to a national park,” he said. “Frankly, there’s no benefit to anyone in this.”

The redesignation idea is just a couple of years old, and any formal action would require Congressional funding of environmental impact studies required for national park and national preserve designation which would take several years, and then a final vote in Congress.