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The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey Press Releases
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Steve Ertel
Phone: (610) 834-1323, Ext. 123
E-mail: sertel@tnc.org

The Nature Conservancy Expands Muckshaw Ponds Preserve

Purchase of Rudzki Tract connects Sussex County
preserve to state protected lands, offers recreational and water preservation benefits

CHESTER, NJ—October 6, 2005—The Nature Conservancy today announced the

Adam and Zena Rudzki property © TNC
Adam and Zena Rudzki property © TNC

purchase of 86 acres within its existing 403-acre Muckshaw Ponds Preserve in Sussex County, a New Jersey Natural Heritage Site and home to a number of globally rare natural communities and endangered plants and animals.  The Conservancy purchased the Fredon Township property from Adam and Zena Rudzki.  The project completes protection of the area and connects Muckshaw Ponds Preserve with the 1,900-acre Whittingham Wildlife Management area, creating an extensive greenway for plants and animals and preserving water quality and recreation opportunities.

“The Rudzki’s commitment to preserving our state’s lands and waters has helped us to protect a critical area in New Jersey that will benefit both people and the environment alike,” said Barbara Brummer, Ph.D., executive director, The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey.  “We are thrilled that this special place, which provides recreational opportunities and drinking water for thousands of people, will remain healthy for generations to come.”

The Conservancy partnered with a number of public and private groups to protect this special place. A portion of the funding for this project was provided by Fredon Township and the Sussex County Farmland Preservation, Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund.  Additional funding was provided by the State Green Acres program, a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and private donations.

“This project is an excellent example of the value open-space preservation can have on the community at-large,” said Sussex County Freeholder Director Glen Vetrano.  “We are thrilled to continue working with citizens like the Rudzki’s and organizations like The Nature Conservancy to lead the way in protecting important places and our quality of life.  The Muckshaw Ponds preserve is important due to its combination of both farmland preservation and open space protection.”

The Muckshaw Ponds Preserve contains a series of sinkhole ponds and one larger pond surrounded by steep limestone ridges supporting a mature hardwood forest.  This unique combination of characteristics supports a high quality collection of globally rare upland and wetland natural communities, state endangered plants, including hop-like sedge, aster-like boltonia, and the swamp birch and state threatened animals, including the long-tailed salamander and the northern cricket frog.

The Rudzki tract holds significant conservation value as it contains a portion of the large Muckshaw Pond and three of the smaller sinkhole ponds. Without protection, this property could have been converted for low-density residential housing resulting in increased groundwater withdrawal that would severely threaten the sinkhole ponds as well as the globally rare natural communities located on this property.

“We are fortunate that the Rudzkis have provided excellent stewardship of the property for many years and now they have agreed to entrust stewardship of the property to us,” said Michael Van Clef, Ph.D., director of science and stewardship with The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey.  “This property completes the preservation of all seven sinkhole ponds on this preserve as well as the large Muckshaw Pond.”

This area is also critical because of the human benefits it provides, ranging from protecting human-health to preserving quality of life and traditional land-use. 

As part of the Upper Delaware River Watershed Management Area and within the Pequest River drainage basin, protection of this forested area will help protect drinking water quality for millions of people as well as water recharge to the underlying groundwater aquifer.
In addition to safeguarding drinking water, this site also provides recreation opportunities for these local residents and the millions of people who come to Skylands area each year. 

At the other end of the preserve, The Nature Conservancy has supported the continuation of traditional farming as part of its overall efforts to support agriculture in the Skylands region.  The Conservancy is working with a tenant farmer to retire some of his fields closest to the sinkhole ponds, where they have begun forest restoration work using native plants.

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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/newjersey.