Amid growing national uncertainty around environmental protections, the Pinelands Alliance is hoping New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill moves “to strengthen and expand the state’s layered environmental safeguards to protect clean air, water, public lands and climate resilience,” noted Rachel Grace, communications manager for the alliance, which was founded in 1989 to protect the state’s 1.1 million-acre Pinelands National Reserve.

A virtual press conference earlier this month, led by Pinelands Alliance Executive Director Jacqueline Rhodes, focused…