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Contact/Learn About The Pinelands Commission

The New Jersey Pinelands Commission is an independent state agency overseen by a 15-member board of unpaid Commissioners. Seven members of the Commission are appointed by the Governor of New Jersey, and confirmed by the state Senate; one member is appointed by each of the seven Pinelands counties; and one member is appointed by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

The Pinelands Commission creates and implements the Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP). The Comprehensive Management Plan is the body of rules which carries out the mandates of the 1979 New Jersey Pinelands Protection Act and the Federal National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 to promote orderly development in the Pinelands so as to preserve and protect the significant and unique natural, ecological, agricultural, archaeological, historical, scenic, cultural and recreational resources of the Pinelands.

The Commission has the power to override all local land use and development regulations, and municipalities are required by law to conform their local master plans and zoning ordinances to the regional plan.

Members of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission can be contacted by writing to:

[Name of the Commissioner]

New Jersey Pinelands Commission
P.O. Box 359
15 Springfield Road

New Lisbon, New Jersey 08064

Phone: (609) 894-7300

Website: www.state.nj.us/pinelands

Appointee by U.S. Secretary of the Interior

Richard L. Harris- Mr. Harris replaced Robert McIntosh in December 2010 when Mr. McIntosh retired after 15 years of service on the Commission. Mr. Harris is a National Parks Service associate regional director for natural resources and science at the Philadelphia office. Harris started his career with the U.S. Forest Service and held a series of resource management positions at national parks in the Western states

Gubernatorial Appointees

Candace McKee Ashmun - Ms. Ashmun has served as a member of the Pinelands Commission since its creation in 1979. She has also served on the State Planning Commission and as Executive Director and three‑term President of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions.

Robert Jackson - A resident of Middle Township in Cape May County, Robert Jackson joined the Commission as a gubernatorial appointee in June 2008. Mr. Jackson served as the Mayor of West Cape May from 2001-2005. He is currently the Legal Redress Chairman of the Cape May County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and is the President of the Board of Cape Human Resources.

Mark S. Lohbauer (Chair) - A resident of Pennsauken, Mr. Lohbauer joined the Pinelands Commission in July 2011. Since 2004, Lohbauer has been a principal of JGSC Group, a retail market-making firm that focuses on revitalizing downtown commercial corridors.

Gary Quinn - Mr. Quinn joined the Commission on July 2011. Currently the Mayor of Lacey, Mr. Quinn has served on the Township Committee since 2003. He is the President and Owner of Eastport Builders, a real estate development company that specializes in developing single-family residential developments, multi-family senior housing and commercial site plans throughout southern Ocean County.

D'Arcy Rohan Green - Ms. Rohan Green joined the Commission in July 2011. A resident of Bay Head, Rohan Green currently serves on the Bay Head Borough Council and is a former member of the Borough's Environmental Commission and Planning Board. Rohan Green serves on the Board of Directors for Save Barnegat Bay and is an advisory member of Clean Ocean Action and the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

Edward Lloyd - Mr. Lloyd joined the Commission as a gubernatorial appointee in 2002. Mr. Lloyd is Clinical Professor of Environmental Law at Columbia Law School. He previously served for 15 years as Director of the Rutgers University Environmental Law Clinic.

County Appointees

Atlantic County

Paul E. Galletta - A lifelong resident of Hammonton, Mr. Galletta began serving as Atlantic County's representative on the Pinelands Commission in April 2007. Mr. Galletta is the owner and director of the Atlantic Blueberry Company, the largest cultivated blueberry farm in the United States.

Burlington County

Sean W. Earlen - Mr. Earlen has served as Burlington County's representative on the Commission since August 2011. A resident of Lumberton, Mr. Earlen is the Director of Real Estate & Acquisitions for Constructural Dynamics, Inc. of Fairless Hills, PA. He is involved in overseeing the companys land-use functions as well as its manufacturing and industrial locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Camden County

Edward McGlinchey - Mr. McGlinchey has served as Camden County's representative on the Commission since August 2010. Mr. McGlinchey has served as Winslow Township's Public Works Manager since 1979 and as the township's Zoning Officer since 1982.

Cape May County

William J. Brown - Mr. Brown has represented Cape May County on the Commission since 1981. A licensed insurance agent, real estate broker and certified real estate appraiser, Mr. Brown is the president of the William J. Brown Agency, Inc., a real estate and insurance firm in Marmora.

Cumberland County

Leslie M. Ficcaglia - Representing Cumberland County since 1996, Ms. Ficcaglia served as a member of the Maurice River Township Planning Board for almost twenty years, including seven as Chair. She was Vice Chair of the Cumberland County Planning Board until 2007, and is currently a member of the County Tourism Council, trustee of the Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and its Tributaries, and sits on the Delaware Bayshores Advisory Council of The Nature Conservancy.

Gloucester County

Francis A. Witt - Francis Witt began serving as Gloucester County's representative on the Commission in February 2004. He is a Partner in the firm of Joseph F. McKernan Architects and Associates in Cherry Hill, where he also serves as Treasurer and Marketing Principal.

Ocean County

John Haas - Representing Ocean County on the Pinelands Commission since December 2005, Mr. Haas served as the District Recycling Coordinator in Ocean County for the past 20 years prior to his retirement in 2010. He is a resident of Seaside Park.

(Commissioners' biographies adapted from the Pinelands Commission website. For more information please visit their website at http://www.state.nj.us/pinelands/about/memb/)