Haddonfield High School student raises $5,000 for Nature Conservancy

Funds to be used for hurricane relief

CHESTER, NJ – Last fall, Joey Goldberg, a concerned student at Haddonfield High School turned his musical talents into much needed hurricane relief for The Nature Conservancy’s Gulf Coast conservation programs. He wrote, recorded, and sold a CD of original music, raising $5,000 for The Nature Conservancy’s conservation work in Louisiana and Mississippi. The funds will be used to address the ecological damage done by hurricane’s Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast. A check presentation will be held on Thursday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Haddonfield High School library and media center.

"We are pleased that a student at Haddonfield High School here in New Jersey has the generosity and foresight to help The Conservancy’s work in Louisiana and Mississippi ,” said Dr. Barbara Brummer, executive director, The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey. “These funds will help protect and restore the lands and waters of the Gulf and also help the human communities in these states who live and work in these natural areas."

“I’m very happy to be able to make a contribution to help The Nature Conservancy,” said Joey Goldberg.

Added Ron Smith, environmental sciences teacher at Haddonfield High School, and Joey’s mentor, “Joey’s talents and generosity have helped to make a difference in this ecologically devastated area.”

In addition to the devastating and tragic human impact of Hurricane’s Rita and Katrina, the Gulf states suffered serious ecological damage. Nearly one third of the Conservancy’s priority conservation sites were severely affected by the storm. Barrier islands which help to absorb the impact of storms and hurricanes were damaged including a 50% loss of land mass in Chandeleur Island. The toll on Maritime forests also was heavy with nearly five billion board feet of timber down or damaged. Up to 80% of all canopy trees toppled or snapped in the lower Pearl River floodplain, and a pine plantations and off-site pine forests also experienced major thinning. Additionally, Gulf Coast fisheries lost an estimated $278.1 million as a result of the hurricanes.

For more than 40 years, The Nature Conservancy has worked across the Gulf states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas to protect coastal habitat. Currently, we’re working with public and private partners to take immediate action to assess hurricane damage, to rebuild natural systems such as barrier beaches and oyster reefs and to develop conservation plans to reduce future threats. In addition, we’re continuing our ongoing work across the coastal states and Mexico, such as the study of climate change on Gulf systems, the development of innovative strategies to rebuild communities so they are compatible with natural systems and outreach to private landowners to conserve Gulf of Mexico resources.

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Within New Jersey, the Conservancy has protected over 56,000 acres and has completed almost 400 conservation transactions with the help of more than 26,000 individual members, as well as corporate sponsors and foundations. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/New Jersey.