A sunstar shines through the trees over a river in the forest

Green Acres

Green Acres Mission

To achieve, in partnership with others, a system of interconnected open spaces, whose protection will preserve and enhance New Jersey’s natural environment and its historic, scenic, and recreational resources for public use and enjoyment.

The Green Acres Program was created in 1961 to meet New Jersey’s growing recreation and conservation needs. Together with public and private partners, Green Acres has protected well over a million and a half acres of open space and provided hundreds of outdoor recreational facilities in communities around the State.

News and Notices

Local and Nonprofit 2023 Funding Round Now Closed

Please check back for updates about project submissions and approvals. We anticipate having a funding round in 2024 and encourage all potential applicants to begin engaging the public to identify their most pressing open space and recreation needs. For reference, the 2023 applications documents can be found on our Forms page.

Green Acres hosted several virtual Application Overview / Information Sessions on January 11, 2023. The presentations and recordings are still available for future applicants to review:

Acquisition projects (including Green Acres and Urban Parks) [Click here to see the presentation slides] [Click here to watch the recording of the session]
Park Development (Green Acres and Urban Parks), Stewardship, and Jake’s Law projects [Click here to see the presentation slides] [Click here to watch the recording of the session]

Green Acres Local and Nonprofit Assistance Stakeholder Outreach 9/29/2022 and 9/30/2022

In advance of our next funding round, the Green Acres Program has identified ways to better meet the DEP’s goals and improve the administration of funding for land acquisition, park development, and stewardship projects. We reviewed the Local and Nonprofit Assistance program’s applications, eligibility requirements, funding priorities, and project administration processes, and identified ways to better serve the public and our funding partners.

As part of this effort, we held two virtual outreach meetings where we presented our planned changes and gathered your feedback. The meetings were held on Thursday, September 29th and Friday, September 30th. We continue to welcome your ideas about how we can better meet our shared recreation and conservation goals. If you would like to provide us with thoughts or recommendations for program improvements, please email us at GreenAcres@dep.nj.gov

Readopted Green Acres rules extend the program to 2025.