| Fast Facts |
location
25 miles southeast of Philadelphia
ecoregion
North Atlantic Coast
project size
1.1 million acres
preserves
Hirst Ponds, Forked River Mountain, East Plains, Oswego River Lowlands
public lands
Pinelands National Reserve includes Cape May and Forsythe national wildlife refuges; Brendan Byrne, Belleplain, Bass River and Penn state forests; Greenwood, Stafford Forge and Forked River Mountain wildlife management areas; and Double Trouble State Park
partners
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey State Department of Agriculture, farmers and the farming community, Pinelands Commission, Pinelands Preservation Alliance
conservancy initiatives
Fire, Freshwater
natural events
cranberry harvest and flowering of pine barren gentian, fall; Pinelands Month, October; pine barrens treefrog chorus, spring | |
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Cultivating the Garden State’s backyard of forests, farms and valuable groundwater requires a strong plan for land use and the commitment of its residents. |
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Wading River.
© David Muench |
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Spreading across the most densely populated state in the country, the New Jersey Pine Barrens remains a dynamic patchwork of open space and rural living. Cranberry and blueberry farms thrive in the sandy soils once deemed useless by 17th- and 18th-century settlers. The Pine Barrens landscape covers 1 million acres of forest, wetlands and quaint hamlets and represents nearly a quarter of the state—the most extensive undeveloped area on the eastern seaboard between Boston and Richmond.
This distinctive terrain was shaped by the elements. Ancient seas deposited waves of gravel that, with time, became the sandy soil. Fire swept the land, and it remains a friend to the vast expanses of pitch pine and shrub oak forests that dominate the barrens. Many of the species found here, including the pygmy pines that range from 4 to 10 feet high, depend on regular intervals of intense heat to pop open their cones, releasing seeds and spurring new growth. |
Batsto Lake.
© Bob Krist |
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Beneath the Pine Barrens lies a vast underground lake known as the Kirkwood Cohansey formation. The porous soils of the barrens led to the creation of this freshwater aquifer that maintains the ecological balance of surface streams, bogs, swamps and estuaries, supports agriculture and provides drinking water for |
| hundreds of thousands of people. Estimated at 17 trillion gallons, the aquifer equates to an amount that would cover the entire state of New Jersey with 6 feet of water. | |
The Nature Conservancy is committed to protecting this mosaic of undeveloped land and water for which fire is an essential element. To restore fire to key areas where it no longer naturally occurs, we are convening public and private land managers and residents to talk about the benefits of and barriers to ecological fire management in the region. Conservancy-owned land will be used to demonstrate prescribed fire as an ecological restoration tool. We hope that these efforts will introduce the use of ecological fire to tracts of land that characterize the Pine Barrens.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in New Jersey. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
pitch pine barrens, pygmy pine forest, pine barrens treefrog, sand-myrtle, Pickering’s morning glory, bearberry, pyxie moss, bog asphodel, blackjack oak
stresses
residential and commercial development, agricultural runoff, sand mining, altered natural fire regimes
strategies
engage community, acquire land, secure conservation easements, build conservation alliances, promote compatible development, restore ecosystems through fire management
results
created two preserves with the purchase of 1,752 acres; influenced the revision of rules for valuing farmland, leading to participation of 85 farms in New Jersey’s agricultural development rights program and the protection of thousands of acres | | | | |
