Musto said Act 13 of 2000, will permit the township to exchange twenty-six acres of land in the Buttonwood section that currently fall under Project 70 restrictions for twenty-nine acres the township is purchasing in the same area. Any restrictions on land use will shift to the new purchase.

Enacted in June, 1964, Project 70 protects land owned by the state and local governments from private and commercial development.

"It mandates the land be used only for park, recreation and conservation purposes," Musto said. "In making this exchange, the township is preserving a larger, more desirable piece of land, while freeing another area for development."

Musto has been the recipient of several major conservation awards and is widely recognized for his legislative work in the areas of conservation and natural resource preservation.

"So much of our great Commonwealth was over-developed in the fifties, sixties and seventies that we really must keep a portion of our unused land for conservation, ecological and recreational purposes," he noted. "If we don’t do it now, there will be nothing left to preserve for future generations."