Renames pinelands area as "John McPhee pinelands area."

# Summary of New Jersey Bill Renaming Pinelands Area This bill amends New Jersey law to rename the "Pinelands area" to the "John McPhee Pinelands area." The renaming honors Pulitzer Prize-winning author John McPhee, whose 1968 book "The Pine Barrens" inspired the preservation of this significant ecosystem. The bill amends numerous legal references throughout New Jersey statutes that currently refer to the "Pinelands area," updating them to "John McPhee Pinelands area" wherever it appears. The Pinelands is the largest remaining example of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem, stretching across more than a fifth of New Jersey's land area. It contains 1,000 species of native flowering plants, 280 mosses, 34 mammal species, 24 amphibian species, 30 reptile species, and 144 bird species. The area also contains a 17-trillion-gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer with some of the purest water in the United States. Congress officially designated 1.1 million acres of the area as the Pinelands National Reserve in 1978, making it the first National Reserve in the country. The book "The Pine Barrens" was pivotal in the political battle to preserve the Pinelands from overdevelopment, and Governor Brendan Byrne credited the book as inspiration for the 1979 "Pinelands Protection Act" that protects the area's sensitive ecosystem. The bill is a simple renaming measure with no substantive changes to the laws governing the area.