Around 1976 plans were put in place to tear down New Jersey’s one million-acre Pine Barrens and build a mega airport with high-speed transport lines to serve both New York and Philadelphia. In addition, a city of 70,000 people would be built to support the project. Obviously, this would destroy a precious ecosystem in the name of progress.

However, a small group of concerned citizens, led by everyday folks like Nan Hunter Walnut, a resident of Southampton Township and a founding member of the…