Island Beach House, used by many Governors, should remain a State Resource

I've been in Love with Island Beach since way back in the 50's. It's a treasure to me because in evokes a past long gone for most of the Jersey Shore, but it's also the spirit and fodder of the place which turned me, as a young man, into an Estuarine Ecologist, and I've devoted my whole working life to studying the bays and byways of our Atlantic Coast.

Imagine when our whole shoreline was as wild and wonderful as this one stretch of coast...well don't imagine it on a day when the sand is 135 degrees and the green-head flies arebiting, but consider it on an October afternoon when the air is so clear you could see Spain and the water is still warm and clear.

Consider how this kind of natural system supported all the historic fin and shell fisheries which made the Jersey shore really seafood rich. It's a message and a lesson for all of us, and one our Governors, all of them, should be encouraged to learn about, and yes, enjoy. Not that Chris Christie doesn't deserve the flak he's gotten, because in the same breath he'd taken this learning opportunity away from literally thousands of folks who do not have the ability to pick another day in early July.

Most of us visiting Island Beach will never see more than the Back of the Gubernatorial house, but hey, there are many other wonderful sights on this coast; pieces of shipwrecks that emerge suddenly after a storm, where my then-girlfriend Martha Neary sat so proudly in 1957; the remaining Coast Guard Station (where I did part of my scientific research,in the sixties thanks to then-Superintendent John Verdier.

There is the exquisite view you can get, hiking through the dune paths at almost any of the access points, with the sea suddenly appearing beyond the primary dunes, or the equal surprise in hiking to the Barnegat Bay shoreline which is so different but stunningly beautiful as well.

If your Governor can come here, see these sights and understand how important this kind of environment is to our world, and to New Jersey (which is our most densely populated state), we have created benefits almost beyond value to us all.

There was a time in a less litigious society, less threatened with violent outburst when a Governor could be human here. Gov. Robert Miner, in my youth, would walk out of a morning and chat with the fishermen surf casting in front of the residence, sit down on the sand and have a real chat with an avid fan of striped bass, or a National Guardsman on weekend pass, or just a kid who would be a voter someday. Island Beach helped him touch the people of his State.

Most of the people who came to this strand over its many decades since being acquired from the Phipps Estate , would never have a real house here, but could at least in a family's term of years, occupy one of the many little shacks. Job E. Fransis, Manasquan's Postmaster, built one where countless youngsters came and learned about the Bay and ocean.

The shack shown here was built by Federal Judge Richard Hartshorn, who hailed from Newark, and his descendants. Old timers told me tales of stopping by for a jug of water from Hartshorn's pump, and finding him and some friends inside 'round a table at cards, still in their white shirts an ties!

The Governor's house itself could never really be sold, as the current Lieutenant Governor and an equally misguided Legislator have intoned. It is on public, indeed sacred, land. Moving it would be almost impossible and would create more environmental damage than torching the place. Renting it would assure that only the really wealthy could ever enjoy the place, and generate far less revenue than its upkeep would demand.

The house should not, however, be the province of the Governor alone. It could serve as a marvelous conference facility, a place for retreats and workshops, a teaching opportunity for many. Don't kill the goose, feed it properly, and open it more widely to people and the representatives of the people. Make it a place where many can learn and learn to love this special place.

Kent Mountford, PhD, Estuarine Ecologist and Environmental Historian

Mountford's family has summered at Manasquan since 1924