PLEASE PLACE YOUR LETTERHEAD HERE

April 26, 2001

Acting Governor and Senator Donald T. DiFrancesco, President

1816 Front Street

Scotch Plains, NJ 07076

Dear Acting Governor, Senator and President of the Senate DiFrancesco:

Our organization urges you to post and pass Senate Bill S-1958 that extends coverage of the existing Landowners Liability Act to grantors of qualified conservation easements with public access. This bill, which the Senate Environment Committee and the Assembly Committee of Agriculture and Natural Resources recently unanimously passed was introduced and has been guided by Senator William Schluter and by Assemblyman Leonard Lance in the New Jersey as Assembly Bill A-3035. Many important conservation projects are threatened by the legal jeopardy that the current law places conservation grantors in. The bill limits on the liability of landowners who convey to government entities or certain nonprofit organizations, conservation easements on lands upon which public access is allowed. The bill extends a protection only to conservation easement grantors in suburban and urban tracts that is already available to rural and semi-rural tracts, irrespective of their conservation status.

This bill is needed to prevent future conservation grantors from being dissuaded from conserving their land, and to avoid subjecting those generous individuals who already have made important grants to litigation. This threat of litigation is serious because under the current law, the courts have consistently ruled that the Landowner Liability Act (NJSA 2A:42A-2 to 10) does not apply to suburban or urban landowners. As such, a suburban public access grantor could be said to have invited the public onto his or her lands. This invokes a totally different standard of care than that entailed with a trespasser, and one that is impossible to meet considering that the landowner could not govern the conduct of the public on those lands.

Although many public access area easements have been granted, these landowners are exposing themselves to claims of a public they can neither warn nor control. However, public access on conserved land is a valuable public asset, which should encouraged whenever public or charitable funds are used to purchase conservation easements. We should correct this discriminatory and problematic judicial interpretation of the law before it dissuades future conservation efforts, or promotes an unwarranted claim against those who have made important conservation grants to our communities and state.

This bill, has been received with considerable support from leading conservation entities of both state and national prominence.

It represents a non-controversial, non-partisan good public policy. We hope you will post and pass it forthwith. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of this important legislation.

PLEASE PLACE YOUR LETTERHEAD HERE

April 26, 2001

Assemblyman Jack Collins

Speaker

The New Jersey General Assembly

Suite C

63 East Avenue

Woodstown, NJ 08098-1499

Dear Assemblyman Collins:

Our organization urges you to post and pass Assembly Bill A-3035 that extends coverage of the existing Landowners Liability Act to grantors of qualified conservation easements with public access. This bill, which the Assembly Committee of Agriculture and Natural Resources recently unanimously passed was introduced and has been guided by Assemblyman Leonard Lance and by Senator William Schluter in the New Jersey Senate as S-1958, where it awaits a vote by the full Senate. Many important conservation projects are threatened by the legal jeopardy that the current law places conservation grantors in. The bill limits on the liability of landowners who convey to government entities or certain nonprofit organizations, conservation easements on lands upon which public access is allowed. The bill extends a protection only to conservation easement grantors in suburban and urban tracts that is already available to rural and semi-rural tracts, irrespective of their conservation status.

This bill is needed to prevent future conservation grantors from being dissuaded from conserving their land, and to avoid subjecting those generous individuals who already have made important grants to litigation. This threat of litigation is serious because under the current law, the courts have consistently ruled that the Landowner Liability Act (NJSA 2A:42A-2 to 10) does not apply to suburban or urban landowners. As such, a suburban public access grantor could be said to have invited the public onto his or her lands. This invokes a totally different standard of care than that entailed with a trespasser, and one that is impossible to meet considering that the landowner could not govern the conduct of the public on those lands.

Although many public access area easements have been granted, these landowners are exposing themselves to claims of a public they can neither warn nor control. However, public access on conserved land is a valuable public asset, which should encouraged whenever public or charitable funds are used to purchase conservation easements. We should correct this discriminatory and problematic judicial interpretation of the law before it dissuades future conservation efforts, or promotes an unwarranted claim against those who have made important conservation grants to our communities and state.

This bill, has in a short time, been received with considerable support from leading conservation entities of both state and national prominence, including the American Littoral Society, the Sierra Club, The Musconetcong Watershed, the Delaware and Raritan Greenway, Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the South Jersey Land Trust, the Upper Rockaway Watershed Association, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions and others.

It represents a non-controversial, non-partisan good public policy, and we hope you will post and pass it forthwith. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of this important legislation.

PLEASE PLACE YOUR LETTERHEAD HERE

April 26, 2001

Assemblyman David C. Russo

Chairman, Assembly Judiciary Committee

New Jersey General Assembly

22 Paterson Ave., Midland Park, NJ 07432

Dear Assemblyman Russo:

Our organization urges you to post and pass through the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Assembly Bill A-3035 that extends coverage of the existing Landowners Liability Act to grantors of qualified conservation easements with public access. This bill, which the Assembly Committee of Agriculture and Natural Resources recently unanimously passed was introduced and has been guided by Assemblyman Leonard Lance and by Senator William Schluter in the New Jersey Senate as S-1958, where it awaits a vote by the full Senate. Many important conservation projects are threatened by the legal jeopardy that the current law places conservation grantors in. The bill limits on the liability of landowners who convey to government entities or certain nonprofit organizations, conservation easements on lands upon which public access is allowed. The bill extends a protection only to conservation easement grantors in suburban and urban tracts that is already available to rural and semi-rural tracts, irrespective of their conservation status.

This bill is needed to prevent future conservation grantors from being dissuaded from conserving their land, and to avoid subjecting those generous individuals who already have made important grants to litigation. This threat of litigation is serious because under the current law, the courts have consistently ruled that the Landowner Liability Act (NJSA 2A:42A-2 to 10) does not apply to suburban or urban landowners. As such, a suburban public access grantor could be said to have invited the public onto his or her lands. This invokes a totally different standard of care than that entailed with a trespasser, and one that is impossible to meet considering that the landowner could not govern the conduct of the public on those lands.

Although many public access area easements have been granted, these landowners are exposing themselves to claims of a public they can neither warn nor control. However, public access on conserved land is a valuable public asset, which should encouraged whenever public or charitable funds are used to purchase conservation easements. We should correct this discriminatory and problematic judicial interpretation of the law before it dissuades future conservation efforts, or promotes an unwarranted claim against those who have made important conservation grants to our communities and state.

This bill, has in a short time, been widely supported by leading conservation entities of both state and national prominence.

It represents a non-controversial, non-partisan good public policy, and we hope you will post and pass it. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of this important legislation.