The Pine Barrens: The Past, the Politics & the Future Mar. 3, 2 p.m.

[Jersey Jeff]

The New Jersey Conservation Foundation is sponsoring a panel discussion titled "The Pine Barrens: The Past, the Politics & the Future" on March 3 at 2 p.m. at Princeton University's McCosh 50 Lecture Hall.

NJTV's Michael Aaron will host the discussion, which features Governors Brendan Byrne and James Florio, "The Pine Barrens" author John McPhee, Michele S. Byers of New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Carleton Montgomery of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.​

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The event is free and open to the public.

 

[Teegate]

All,

I attended this event today with Lost Town Hunter. We arrived at the Morven Museum to see the photographs of Richard Speedy at the same time as Carlton Montgomery the Executive Director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. Eventually, all of the principal speakers of the afternoon event arrived and the self tour began. I ran into Brendan Byrne at the same moment we both noticed one of his quotes on the wall. I asked him if he would stand alongside it and he was very accommodating.

This shows Lost Town Hunter with Brendan Byrne and photographer Richard Speedy. I believe the woman in the back is Mr. Speedy's wife.

Everyone in attendance was treated to a nice small luncheon where this photo was taken of Jim Florio and Lost Town Hunter. It was really difficult to take photo's in this room with the windows in the distance. BTW, I ate Salmon and kuskus for lunch. I actually never had Salmon before and just recently started eating kuskus as I have changed my diet to eliminate cholesterol. I have lost 5 pounds and am now at 158. With very few males in my family making it to my age I am doing my best to make sure I live longer.

John McPhee chatting with Lost Town Hunter.

Then it was time to travel across town to Princeton University and the main event of the day. This shows the McCosh Lecture Hall.

John McPhee, Jim Florio, and Carleton Montgomery.

The crowd was certainly there to see McPhee, and everyone had items for him to sign. Lost Town Hunter was no exception. For thirty minutes it was non stop until the event started.

Scanning the crowd I noticed someone else you all should be familiar with. Our very own Spung-Man! I think that is a secret service agent in the back protecting him from the many developers and chain saw advocates he has come across. Or maybe he is a double agent with that rope in his hand!

The place was packed! They even had to turn people away, but they were nice enough to leave the doors open and let them hear what was going on inside. It was a well run event.

I noticed Spung-Man talking with McPhee and made it a point to get him a photograph of the event. In fact, I took many of them for a small $10 fee for each. Just kidding! Spung-Man....I will pass along all of them if you are interested. Send me an email.

Guy

 

[Jersey Jeff]

My son and I were there too. We appeared to have been sitting a few rows behind Spung-Man.

I actually went out and purchased a copy of McPhee's book to get signed today. I first read the book when I was 12 when I borrowed it from my local public library. I just re-read it last year.

Byrne and Florio were two profiles in courage...something that is lacking among modern-day pols.

 

[bobpbx]

Great report Guy! So very neat, that photo of Brendan Byrne by that quote. He had the guts to go with it!

How was the discussion part?

 

[Teegate]

McPhee is low key so he was not one to offer anything that was not asked. He did mention a few interesting things about how he researched his book and that at times he lived in a tent. Florio was himself and in reality quite interesting. Byrne is feeble but still has his memory even though he was erratic at times. Towards the end he seemed to want it over with and actually tried to end it himself. Right in the middle of it all he introduced his family which was slightly uncomfortable but also funny. Carlton Montgomery is quite impressive and had the most to say in my opinion. And Michele Byers was quite upbeat and offered more personal stories even though she may have confused someone she was talking about with his son. She is a big fan of Garfield DeMarco and no matter what anyone thinks about him his contribution was huge.

The seats in that place are really uncomfortable and someone like me with no body fat on their ass it was a tough hour and a half. We were there a half hour early so it really was two hours. All in all I am glad I went.

Guy

 

[Spung-Man]

Scanning the crowd I noticed someone else you all should be familiar with. Our very own Spung-Man! I think that is a secret service agent in the back protecting him from the many developers and chain saw advocates he has come across. Or maybe he is a double agent with that rope in his hand!

Guy, Jeff,

I’m so sorry to have missed you!

As Carleton noted this was one of the largest gathering of Pinelands groupies in years. Brendan Byrne’s sense of humor shined through! We are very lucky that the ex-governor convinced McPhee’s to attend. He rarely makes public appearances.

In Guy’s photo with the outed KGB operational is my daughter Alexis (left) and Medford Art Center’s Janet Jackson-Gould (right).​

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A photo from the event of Alexis and I courtesy of dear friend Joe “Snuff-Mill” Sapia, champion of the Spotswood Outlier.​

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http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/driverless-atv-seen-on-route-18.6190/#post-73782​

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[Jerseyman]

In Guy’s photo with the outed KGB operational is my daughter Alexis (left) and Medford Art Center’s Janet Jackson-Gould (right).

S-M:

While one of Janet Jackson-Gould’s current position is chairwoman of the Medford Arts Center, she has had a long and distinguished career working in the Pine Barrens, including serving as the director of the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Preserve; and as a member of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance Board of Directors. She has long served as first vice president and program chair of the Medford Historical Society. She is well known as a non-profit fundraiser and organizer. In the fall of 2012, she organized and managed the symposium on Witmer Stone; and, most recently, she was instrumental in bringing the Dr. James Still symposium to fruition.

Just want to give this fine woman her due.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Ben Ruset]

I almost went myself, since I work at Princeton. McCosh Hall is also where they do a lot of the freshman survey courses, hence the size of the room. They have the old, uncomfortable seats there to keep it historic.

 

[dogg57]

Nice pictures Guy. Here is what the paper had on it

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/n...sses_push_to_save_the_Pinelands_in_1960s.html​

 

[Boyd]

Excellent report and photos! I thought about going, but am just too anti-social to enjoy that kind of event.

 

[GermanG]

I had hoped to attend myself, but as usual on weekends, I was working, leading a hike in the Ramapo Mountains. But then again, that was fun too .

 

[manumuskin]

saw Florio once back in 90.Had a going away parad in Sea Girt as they were sending us off to the Desert.It was not a good memory.He shook hands with the front row (I was in the second) and said give em hell boys (more or less) and away we went.He was right hell it was (More or less)

 

[Ben Ruset]

I saw him give a graduation speech at my high school and he forgot the name of the school we were at.

 

[manumuskin]

he seemed to be preoccupied at the going away parade also.Shaking hands with soldiers while smiling at the big TV camera that was following him,never looked a single soldier in the eye.

 

[Jersey Jeff]

The kids at Gawker just chimed in on McPhee...

http://gawker.com/5976381/the-new-y...phee-writes-no-matter-how-tedious?tag=writing

 

[bobpbx]

The kids at Gawker just chimed in on McPhee...

http://gawker.com/5976381/the-new-y...phee-writes-no-matter-how-tedious?tag=writing

Good grief, the real knives are out in the hands of the people giving feedback. Writers and wanna-be writers all slaughtering each other. Who the hell cares to be a critic? To me it is such a useless thing to make critique of the written word into a work all of itself. If I don't like a book, I put it down and move on.

 

[Boyd]

Really, if you can't handle the reviews you shouldn't go into the arts. It's just a fact of life, if you put something in front of the public, it will be critiqued. As a scenic and lighting designer and have seen it all first-hand. I remember one from Il Trovatore about 30 years ago where the critic said "Mr. Ostroff should not have taken the Dark Ages so literally with his lighting design." On the whole, there were many more good reviews than bad ones.

Robert Baxter, the critic at the Courier Post went on a personal crusade against my boss at the Opera Company of Philadelphia because he fired a couple of his friends back in 1994. This was manifested in very nasty reviews (try a google search) about the work of everyone he hired, including me and a director I often worked with. Legal action was considered by the company, but it's "freedom of speech". We were successful in getting a major magazine to drop his reviews since they showed such a clear pattern of bias. The Courier Post didn't seem to care about that though.

This bothered me at first, but I quickly got over it and ultimately found it very amusing since it was so predictable. As long as you're happy with your own work, that's really all that matters. Hopefully the public has enough sense to make their own decisions about what they see and read. Today, Robert Baxter is gone and I am still here. So, like they say, "living well is the best revenge".

 

[Jersey Jeff]

Click here to read NJCF's Michele Byers's recap of the event.