Pinelands National Reserve

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The Pinelands National Reserve (PNR) is a federally protected region of approximately 1.1 million acres in southern New Jersey, established in 1978 as the first National Reserve in the United States. Spanning portions of seven counties and all or part of 56 municipalities, the reserve occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area and stands as the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston. More commonly referred to as the Pine Barrens, the landscape encompasses vast pine-oak forests, cedar swamps, slow-moving rivers, coastal wetlands, and working farms. The reserve is home to dozens of rare plant and animal species and the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer system, which contains an estimated 17 trillion gallons of water. In recognition of its outstanding global ecological significance, UNESCO designated it a Biosphere Reserve in 1983.

Geography and Landscape

The Pinelands is located in the Atlantic Outer Coastal Plain, a geological formation characterized by gently rolling terrain and sandy soils. The New Jersey Pinelands Biosphere Reserve consists of a mosaic of upland, wetland, and aquatic environments. The landscape is covered in pitch pine, oak, and Atlantic white cedar, opening up only to reveal cranberry bogs; approximately 35% of the reserve is wetlands — streams, bogs, and swamps. The streams of the Pinelands are fed by the underlying aquifer and are characteristically acidic and nutrient-poor; natural organic material leaching out of the soils is responsible for the dark tea color of the region's streams.

The federal Reserve totals 1.1 million acres, including land east of the Garden State Parkway and to the south bordering Delaware Bay. The two jurisdictions together cover all or parts of 56 municipalities spread across seven counties — Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Ocean. The reserve contains 56 communities, from hamlets to suburbs, with over 700,000 permanent residents.

The Pinelands National Reserve is the largest forested area on the Eastern Seaboard between Maine and the Florida Everglades. The Pinelands has over 800,000 acres of forest, of which only about half is permanently preserved. Within the reserve's boundaries lie major state forests, including Wharton State Forest, Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, Bass River State Forest, and Penn State Forest, as well as Double Trouble State Park.[1] The reserve also includes two National Wild and Scenic Rivers: the Maurice and the Great Egg Harbor.

History

Indigenous and Early European Settlement

The first Americans hunted species now long extinct and settled near small ponds in the Pinelands region; gradually the climate warmed, sea levels rose, and by about 5000 B.C. the region assumed its present general appearance. Through the ensuing millennia, Native peoples harvested the natural resources of the Pines using an evolving toolkit of stone and bone implements. In 1758, Brotherton — the first Indian reservation in America — was established at present-day Indian Mills, Shamong Township.

Europeans first began to come to the Pinelands in numbers in the seventeenth century, particularly after the English seized New Jersey from the Dutch in 1664. Whaling and shipbuilding were two of the major early enterprises, but these were pursued mainly on the coastal periphery of the Pines. It was only in 1765, when the first furnaces were built to exploit the region's bog iron deposits, that settlement in the interior of the Pinelands developed on any real scale. The historic Batsto Village, located within Wharton State Forest, was a bog iron and glass manufacturing site from 1766 to 1867. By the nineteenth century, more than twenty glass manufactories had been established in Pinelands manufacturing towns, including Atco, Barnegat, Clementon, Egg Harbor, Estellville, and Green Bank.

Iron production in the Pine Barrens declined precipitously in the mid-nineteenth century as a result of competition from nearby producers in Pennsylvania, collapsing entirely by 1869. Between 1830 and 1840, residents began cultivating cranberries, a water-intensive crop well-suited to the wetlands of the Pines. In 1916, Elizabeth White and Dr. F.V. Coville developed the first cultivated blueberry at Whitesbog, establishing the blueberry industry in the Pinelands and beyond.[2]

Establishment as a National Reserve

In the 1960s, a proposed jetport project would have developed a satellite city of about 250,000 people and covered approximately 50 square miles in ecologically sensitive parts of the Pine Barrens. The proposed airport generated public opposition and united conservation efforts among farmers, hunters, and environmentalists, who believed that the region was vulnerable to the spread of urban sprawl along the northeastern United States. The 1967 publication of John McPhee's national bestseller The Pine Barrens spurred tremendous public outcry to protect the Pinelands' natural and cultural resources. Casino gambling beginning in Atlantic City in 1977 further increased development pressure on the nearby Pinelands.

The United States Department of the Interior worked with officials from New Jersey, as well as the state's Senate and Congressional delegation, to develop a development management plan for the Pinelands. New Jersey Representatives Edwin B. Forsythe and William J. Hughes proposed bills to preserve the Pinelands, which became attached to an omnibus bill in an amendment sponsored by Congressmen Forsythe, Hughes, and James Florio. President Jimmy Carter signed the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 on November 10, considering it "the most significant conservation legislation to pass the 95th Congress" in his signing statement.

The National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 created the Pinelands National Reserve, consisting of 1,100,000 acres of land in 56 South Jersey municipalities. Upon passage of the bill, the Pinelands National Reserve became the country's first National Reserve. The act authorized $23 million for land acquisition of critically important ecological areas.

In accordance with the law, New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne issued an executive order on February 8, 1979, creating the Pinelands Commission. This was affirmed by the New Jersey legislature in the Pinelands Protection Act, which passed in June 1979. The plan became effective under state law on January 14, 1981, and two days later, Interior Secretary Cecil D. Andrus approved the Comprehensive Management Plan.[3]

Ecology and Natural Resources

The New Jersey Pinelands is the largest area of contiguous, undeveloped forest and wetland on the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the Mid-Atlantic region, and is the largest pine barrens complex in the world. Wildfires have historically favored a pygmy forest of pitch pine (Pinus rigida), blackjack, and scrub oaks. The Pinelands supports a number of endemic plant and animal species, several glacial relict species, and a range of northern and southern species that reach their geographical Coastal Plain limits within the reserve.

There are 580 native species of plants, 54 of which are threatened or endangered. The Pinelands Reserve hosts 299 species of birds, 91 fish, 59 reptiles and amphibians, and 39 mammals. Forty-three animal species are listed as threatened or endangered. In 2015, a new lichen species, Lecanora layana, was discovered in the Pinelands National Reserve.

The reserve is underlain by aquifers containing an estimated 17 trillion gallons of pure water, making it the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston. The Cohansey aquifer in the Pinelands contains over 17 trillion gallons of pure water — enough to cover the entire state of New Jersey with ten feet of water — and this underground reservoir feeds most of the area's streams, supports its agricultural industry, maintains the ecological balance of coastal estuaries, and provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.

In 1983, UNESCO designated the Pinelands as a biosphere reserve, labeling it jointly as the South Atlantic Coastal Plain Biosphere Reserve/Pinelands National Reserve. In 1988, UNESCO redesignated it as a singular biosphere reserve.[4]

Governance and the Comprehensive Management Plan

Resulting from both state and federal initiatives, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission was created in 1979 by the passage of the New Jersey Pinelands Protection Act. Its mission is to preserve, protect, and enhance the natural and cultural resources of the Pinelands National Reserve, and to encourage compatible economic and other human activities consistent with that purpose.

The Commission is an independent state agency overseen by a 15-member board of unpaid volunteer Commissioners. The Commission has the power to set minimum environmental standards for all local zoning and development ordinances, and all municipalities are required by law to conform their local master plans and zoning ordinances to the regional plan. The members of the Commission are chosen as follows: the governor nominates seven members, subject to confirmation by the state senate; each of the seven Pinelands counties appoints one member; and the final member is selected by the United States Secretary of the Interior, usually from the staff of the National Park Service.[5]

Adopted by the Pinelands Commission in 1980, the Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) implements the governing statutes. The CMP regulates where development can take place by creating conservation and growth zones and applying stringent environmental standards to all development. The "Land Capability Map" divides the Pinelands into various conservation and growth zones, with more or less restrictive development rules applying to each zone.

Over 60% of the region is a highly regulated Preservation Area designed to protect the natural characteristics of the landscape, which includes the globally important pygmy pine forests, shrub oaks, and other rare and endangered species. Generally speaking, state permits may not be issued for a Pinelands activity that is inconsistent with the Comprehensive Management Plan.[6]

In 1981, Rutgers University established the Rutgers Division of Pinelands Research to support local ecological research. Since 1980, more than 200,000 acres have been permanently protected through acquisitions, easements, or other means.[7]

Agriculture, Recreation, and Culture

Although inhospitable to most forms of intensive agriculture, the Pinelands have been a crucial site for the commercial farming of blueberries and cranberries, two of New Jersey's most valuable fruit crops. New Jersey is among the top states in the nation in the production of blueberries and cranberries, and virtually all of these are grown in the Pinelands. This agricultural use is permitted by the reserve's designation, which allows traditional resource-based uses such as growing blueberries and cranberries, as well as forestry and low-intensity recreation.

Whether one is interested in exploring a historic site, canoeing down a Pinelands stream, visiting a nature center, or hiking along a trail, a range of recreational experiences can be found within the Pinelands National Reserve. There are over 500 miles of sand roads plus maintained trails in Wharton State Forest for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and exploring. From Batsto Village, visitors can access the Batona Trail — a 50-mile trail that meanders through the Pinelands.

Ghost towns, historic sites, and legends such as the Jersey Devil preserve the Pinelands' unique culture, telling the many stories of how humans have used and depended on the natural world around them. There are numerous Pinelands sites on the National Register of Historic Places, including restored historic villages and settlements, town historic districts, and historic structures and ruins. In 1998, Congress and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated estuarine portions of the Mullica River watershed as the Jacques Cousteau National Estuary Research Reserve at Mullica River-Great Bay, which includes a large area of the Pinelands.[8]

Ongoing conservation challenges include sprawl from urban development, illegal off-road vehicle use, and climate-related changes in fire and hydrology. Conservation groups such as the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, local land trusts, and state and federal agencies actively manage and monitor the region to safeguard its biological and cultural resources.[9]

See Also

References

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External Links

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