AS AMERICAN Mark Lohbauer was being shown around the 47 acres of the Bog Meadows yesterday, he would have been forgiven if he had wondered what all the fuss was about. Because he’s got a mind-boggling 1.1 million acres under his control as a Commissioner of New Jersey’s Pinelands National Reserve.
 
The Commissioner enjoyed a guided tour of the West Belfast nature haven during his first ever trip to Ireland to meet long-lost cousins in Cookstown, Co Tyrone.

The lifelong environmentalist was keen to learn about our own successes – like the Bog Meadows – as well as share his experiences from the famous Pinelands, which covers an area the size of Counties Antrim and Down.
 
Mark is one of a 15-person Commission which preserves the Pinelands, ruling on things like planning – nothing is permitted that will in any way damage the reserve created by Congress 40 years ago, the first of its kind in the States. In this vast tract of land, animals, birds, trees and the water underground always come first.
 
Commissioner Mark was mightily impressed by the Bog Meadows. Between discovering Belfast on his fortnight trip – “I can’t believe how many rainbows you have in Belfast” – and the Glens of Antrim, he’s keen to learn about attempts to protect the environment here. And he believes we would easily embrace a concept like the Pinelands.
 
“I think a helpful way for Irish people to look at it is that you have something that is also very delicate and fragile like the Pinelands,” he said. “And many times over the centuries people have tried to stamp it out, but somehow it has survived. 

At a time when we have to rethink our whole relationship with nature, Mark’s visit is timely. Imagine a forest park covering all of Antrim and Down, from Ballycastle to Newry to Lough Neagh? And we’re not talking those dense conifers, but a light covering of native trees that lets the light in and enriches the lives of everyone beneath them.

“What I’m talking about is Irish culture and language. It's something very precious, it has value, but you can’t put a dollar value on it. It requires proactive preservation with every passing generation and you’ve been successful in preserving it. And I feel that way about the Pinelands. You can’t replace a birdsong or the tree frogs that are only found there. If I lose that, I’ve cheated the generations that come after me of their inheritance.”
 
The decision to protect the Pinelands four decades ago is only fully being appreciated now, given this week’s COP26 focus on rebuilding forests to tackle climate change.
 

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The Pinelands aren’t like the parks or reserves we have here – you don’t have to buy a ticket or go through a gate. It’s simply a massive area where the people who live there – there are 56 different communities in towns and villages – live by different rules. You can go anywhere, walk anywhere. The Pinelands belong to all the residents. And what’s even more amazing is that this massive rural wilderness exists in the United States’ most densely populated state.

The Commission meets every month and the biggest issue on the agenda at every meeting is development – the constant human desire to build and expand. Mark says normal planning processes in the US and Ireland involve making sure things like sewage and safety are complied with, but in the Pinelands, keeping the forest intact is paramount.
 
“You have to make people recognise that there is a value to preserving these threatened species. People are much more interested in the worth of an apartment building or a warehouse and they don’t see the worth of threatened species of predatory birds. Yet in the Pinelands, we have one of the greatest natural water filters in the world. Under that sand we have a natural reserve of 17 trillion gallons of naturally clean water. It's an ample supply of water for future generations and there is a value in that.
 
“And it’s not just the sand that filters the water, it’s the forest on top, that whole living ecosystem that is carrying out that miraculous act of filtration. The Pinelands is the most significant line of defence that we have regarding mitigation of the climate crisis.”
He admitted that in the first five years of the Pinelands there was stiff resistance. “There were companies that wanted to build housing developments and plans for the biggest airport in the country," he said.
 
But despite the initial resistance, the whole community living in the Pinelands now embraces it. Mark says: “Every year the Pinelands Commission publishes a report where we compare the economies of the towns inside the Pinelands with those outside, and we’ve been able to show that the protection of land has actually led to a rise in value, because people recognise the worth of living in a place that is clean, that is green, that is open.”

At a time when we have to rethink our whole relationship with nature, Mark’s visit is timely. Imagine a forest park covering all of Antrim and Down, from Ballycastle to Newry to Lough Neagh? And we’re not talking those dense conifers, but a light covering of native trees that lets the light in and enriches the lives of everyone beneath them.
 
Of course it sounds like a pie-in-the-sky dream, but the climate crisis calls for a whole new way of thinking about the environment and how we live. It’s easy for us to call for forests to be preserved in the Amazon or Indonesia – we have already chopped down our ancient forests of pine and oak to make way for farmland.

 

While our focus remains on economic development rather than rebuilding our countryside, nature in Ireland will continue its sorry decline.
 
Commissioner Mark Lohbauer this week gave us an insight into how things could be so different if only we have the courage.
 
•  If you’ve seen or photographed anything interesting, or have any nature questions, you can text Dúlra on 07801 414804.