Pine Barrens

"Fueled by high winds and dry conditions, New Jersey’s largest wildfire in 15 years swept through Wharton State Forest in the Pine Barrens. . . burning more than 13,500 acres. . . Wharton State Forest encompasses 122,800 acres – or 192 square miles – in Burlington and Atlantic counties. . . Fire is an essential ingredient in making and keeping the Pine Barrens what they have been for thousands of years. “In the Pine Barrens, wildfires that are so dangerous to people and their property are usually not destructive to the natural systems. . . The Pine Barrens needs hot fires to persist, as do many of its rare species.” "

"The Pine Barrens Byway was designated as a National Scenic Byway by the U.S. Department of Transportation. . . [the byway] is a suggested route for visitors to travel that takes them through classic Pine Barrens forests along wetlands and rivers as well as to Pinelands villages and important historic sites. The Pinelands Commission prepared the application to obtain the National Scenic Byway designation and is overseeing the administration of the 130-mile route, which is located predominantly in the lower third of the Pinelands region. . . This designation brings national attention to the Pinelands and allows visitors a new way to appreciate this unique and beautiful place."

"the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled in favor of the Board of Public Utilities, the Pinelands Commission, and New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) in affirming the agency approvals of the unnecessary, destructive Southern Reliability Link (SRL) pipeline. The various appeals filed by PPA and others challenged numerous aspects of the approval process, ranging from compliance with the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan to administrative hearing rights of those impacted by the SRL, several of whom were denied the opportunity to present their cases before regulators. At every step of the way in its decisions, the court unquestioningly deferred to the agencies, despite all the evidence and arguments brought to bear by those challenging the SRL. After NJNG caused accidents in 2020 that impacted wetlands and destroyed a resident’s home, PPA and our partners moved to introduce evidence of the spills in court. This was critical evidence for the court to consider, particularly because advocates and experts had warned the agencies about these precise types of incidents occurring. Inexplicably, the court opted not to accept any evidence of these events, effectively ignoring the facts on the ground and later issuing its final decisions in a factual vacuum."

“On April 22, a spring wildfire roared through Penn State Forest in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, sending 100-foot flames shooting from the crowns of the pitch pines . . . A week later, even as ash still swirled through air heavy with the creosote scent of burned resin and a cedar log smoldered at the edge of a swamp, the forest was being reborn. Pine cones that open only under extreme heat had released their seeds. Though the trees themselves were charred, almost all survived the fire. Where chest-high blueberry and huckleberry had burned down to pointy stubs, tufts of grass were sprouting . . . there is also a mini-savanna of reedgrass in Penn State Forest, and, triggered by this year’s fire, it flowered.” 

"Narthecium americanum Ker-Gawler (bog asphodel: Liliaceae) is a perennial herbaceous plant that occurs in riverside fens and bogs on the outer coastal plain of eastern North America. Although historic occurrences of N. americanum were known from four states (New Jersey, Delaware, and North and South Carolina), extant populations are currently found only in New Jersey. The species is globally imperiled (G2) and until recently was listed as a Candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The species is also locally imperiled (S2) and Endangered in New Jersey. . . The pinelands fens support a high diversity of plant species at very small scales. . . Numerous other rare and endangered species have also been found to occur in these savanna habitats, including 10 globally rare plant species, making these riverside savannas among the most important habitat types for endangered plant species conservation in the state. . . the relative abundance and stability apparent in many populations, and their predominant occurrence on protected lands, N. americanum appears to be more secure at the present than was previously thought. However, considering its global rarity, observed contractions and tenuous status of many populations in the periphery of its range, and rising threats posed by water table drawdown and cedar succession and from human activities and climate change, the long-term prospects for the species are not at all clear."

"The viability of the Pinelands ecosystem depends upon the water that lies beneath in the 3,000-square-mile, 17-trillion-gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer, one of the East Coast’s largest reserves of fresh water. . . A challenge for the pinelands in Long Island and New Jersey is the difficulty of isolating aquifers — even beneath protected land — from the impacts of perimeter development and agriculture. . . the Department of Environmental Protection has allocated more water than it should have. Residential development on the Pinelands’ borders in the Burlington and Ocean counties, along with agricultural withdrawals in the interior, have pushed the aquifer to its limits. . . as groundwater levels continue to decline, wetland forests begin to change, with cedar and hardwood swamps giving way to upland pine-oak forests and pitch-pine lowlands."

"New Jersey is the most developed state in the nation, with 33 percent of its land developed. An additional 46 percent of its land has been permanently preserved or is considered environmentally constrained and hence undevelopable. This leaves only 21 percent of the state’s land area still available for development. Despite this impending build-out, development continues to occur inefficiently, with growth in developed acres outpacing population growth by a factor of 3.7 between 2002 and 2007 (Haase and Lathrop, 2010). These development patterns have taken a toll on New Jersey’s water resources. This pattern of growth, combined with dated water management policies and systems, has degraded water quality and quantity throughout the state, even in places to which it is most desirable to direct growth. Future development threatens to exacerbate the problem, further polluting the waters on which citizens rely on for drinking, recreation and ecosystem health."

"Since the shallow groundwater aquifer provides approximately 90 percent of flow to streams and rivers in the Pinelands, how we use this aquifer has a direct bearing on the aquatic environment and associated wetlands. . . Commissioners of DEP have stated the Department is well along in reforming the rules governing the allocation of water in New Jersey - where fresh water is by law owned by the public. This year, the Commissioner extended the deadline for when the current, outdated rules will expire for another year. These rules set standards and procedures for when someone (golf course, company or water purveyor) wants to remove large volumes of water (more than 100,000 gallons per day) from an aquifer, lake or river. For withdrawals from the shallow Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, current practices can be catastrophic to local streams, rivers and wetlands since these water-bodies are intimately connected to the shallow aquifer. The current rules are not sensitive enough to the needs of aquatic ecosystems, and must be modified so that groundwater withdrawals do not reduce streamflow within the Pinelands. We see no sign the state is really prepared to tackle the fundamental need to reform how the DEP gives away the publics' water resources."

“One of the last strongholds for this species exists in the New Jersey Pinelands, where healthy populations occur in state forests, wildlife management areas, and on some private lands. . . Temporary woodland ponds, white cedar or cranberry bogs, and seepage areas along tributaries of major rivers and streams serve as breeding ponds for Pine Barrens treefrogs. . . Although endangered, the Pine Barrens treefrog is currently considered stable in New Jersey. . . however, protection of this species is warranted, as suitable habitat is limited to specialized Pine Barrens ecosystems patchily distributed throughout the southeastern United States. Habitat loss, wetlands draining and filling, and water pollution, especially from non point sources such as residential and agricultural runoff, are the primary threats facing the Pine Barrens treefrog in New Jersey.”

"Native to the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, the corn snake historically inhabited sites in Ocean, Burlington, Cumberland, and Atlantic counties. . . this reptile has been lost from many traditional sites because of habitat destruction. . . Due to their secretive nature, corn snakes may remain undetected in areas containing suitable habitat. Corn snakes inhabit mature, upland pine-dominated forests that contain uprooted trees, stump holes, and rotten logs. . . the corn snake is especially vulnerable to habitat destruction and alteration. Although documented sites containing corn snakes are afforded protection within the Pinelands Protection Area, upland forests often receive less protection than wetland areas. Upland forests that lie outside the Pinelands Protection Area are highly vulnerable to destruction. . . As habitats are fragmented or reduced in size, corn snakes become increasingly vulnerable to genetic isolation, road mortality, human persecution, and illegal collecting.”

"We're talking about [timber rattlesnakes] an endangered species, and development was allowed to continue. People are moving into areas where they don't belong. We're changing the balance of ecology in the Pinelands."

“Thousands of acres of charred pine barrens have created a living laboratory for scientists who want to study the revival of the ecosystem . . . A few months after the fire had blackened and seemingly destroyed all plant life, as well as endangering nearby houses and businesses, acres of scrub oak line the ground surrounding the desolate trees, tiny huckleberry plants dot the space between the oak, and green pine needles pop out of the black pines. 

“The New Jersey Pine Barrens is the single largest tract of relatively undeveloped land in the northeast urban corridor. Covering more than 1 million acres in southern New Jersey’s Outer Coastal Plain . . . Biologically, the Pine Barrens is a mosaic of various upland and wetland communities supporting more than 500 species of animals and 800 species and varieties of plants . . . This large, diverse assemblage of species makes the Pine Barrens one of the most unique biological systems in North America. Land use and concomitant problems associated with urbanization threaten the continued existence of this very valuable biological resource.“

". . . the pinelands area comprises pine-oak forests, cedar swamps, and extensive surface and ground water resources of high quality which provide a unique habitat for a wide diversity of rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species and contains many other significant and unique natural, ecological, agricultural, scenic, cultural and recreational resources; that the continued viability of such area and resources is threatened by pressures for residential, commercial and industrial development. . . a certain portion of the pinelands area is especially vulnerable to the environmental degradation of surface and ground waters which would be occasioned by the improper development or use thereof; that the degradation of such waters would result in a severe adverse impact upon the entire pinelands area; that it is necessary to designate this portion as a preservation area"