New Jersey’s highest-profile environmentalist who battled government agencies and private industry over pollution, development and public access to beaches and waterways is retiring.

Jeff Tittel says he will soon step down as director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, which he has led for 23 years.

During that time, the 64-year-old became the bane of many elected officials and industry groups for his high-volume advocacy for environmental issues, including a campaign to close the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, which shut down in 2018.

A successor has not yet been named.