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614 acres to be added to Forked River Mountain Preserve

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

If preserving the Forked River Mountains of Ocean County can be compared to putting together a jigsaw puzzle, New Jersey Conservation Foundation is adding one of the most important new pieces.

The non-profit foundation has signed a $2.7 million contract to purchase 614 acres of Pine Barrens property in Lacey and Ocean townships, providing critical connections between existing preserved lands.

“We’ve worked for 15 years to add this property to our Forked River Mountain Preserve,” said Michele S. Byers, executive director of New Jersey Conservation Foundation. “We’re thrilled that this agreement will increase the size of the preserve to nearly 4,000 acres.”

“The lands under contract are several distinct parcels, intermingled with other New Jersey Conservation Foundation holdings and land preserved by the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust and the state,” added Chris Jage, the foundation’s assistant director for South Jersey.

New Jersey Conservation Foundation will buy 13 parcels from Interboro Holding Co., a land investment firm based in Hackensack. Funding for the purchase is expected to come from the state Green Acres program, the Pinelands Commission’s Pinelands Conservation Fund, the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust, the Victoria Foundation and Conservation Resources Inc. A closing date has not yet been scheduled.

The Forked River Mountains, two gravelly hills that rise to 180 feet amid otherwise flat terrain, are at the heart of a vast 20,000-acre Pine Barrens wilderness that has remained relatively unchanged in the last 40 years due to preservation efforts by the conservation community.

The headwaters of three watersheds - Cedar Creek, Forked River and Oyster Creek - originate in the Forked River Mountains area and flow into Barnegat Bay.

Jage noted that the land under contract plays an important role in protecting local water quality. “A large portion of it is in the Oyster Creek watershed, which was singled out by the Pinelands Commission as being in near pristine condition and in need of additional protection,” he said. In addition, a portion of the North Branch of the Forked River runs through the property.

The largely undisturbed land features both pitch pine upland forests and Atlantic White Cedar swamps, both home to many rare and endangered plant and animal species.

One notable aspect of the Forked Mountains area, said Jage, is that it had once been considered as the site for a modern new city to be built in the Pine Barrens, situated near a proposed major airport.

In his 1967 book, “The Pine Barrens,” author John McPhee describes standing atop one of the Forked River hills with an urban planner named Herbert Smith, gazing at the unbroken acres of pineland. “I hope I don’t start to cry. This is a planner’s dream,” said Smith, envisioning a futuristic central business district with 240 acres of stores, plazas and high buildings, accessible only to pedestrians, and even including moving sidewalks and parking nearby for 20,000 cars.

“This area of the Pinelands simply begins to jump out at you if you’re going for urbanization,” added Smith, who also foresaw high-rise housing, schools and industry. “It’s magnificent. It’s just magnificent. I can see those goldarn structures now, surrounded by green.”

As history shows, plans for both the airport and the new city were defeated. The land proposed for the airport became Penn and Bass River State Forests, and the area proposed for the city became the Forked River Mountain Preserve.

New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s ongoing preservation efforts in the Forked River Mountains are aimed at protecting the ecological integrity of the wilderness area. The Forked River Mountain Preserve can be accessed from Wells Mills County Park on Route 532, between the Garden State Parkway and Route 72. NewJersey Conservation Foundation preserved Wells Mills County Park in the 1980s. Trail maps are available at the park’s nature center.

New Jersey Conservation Foundation preserves land and natural resources throughout New Jersey for the benefit of all. Since 1960, New Jersey Conservation Foundation has protected more than 100,000 acres of open space - from the Highlands to the Pine Barrens to the Delaware Bayshore, from farms to forests to urban and suburban parks. For more information, visit our website at www.njconservation.org or call 1-888-LAND-SAVE.