Some people restore cars, others antique furniture, but for the last 50 years, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation has been busy restoring land in the Garden State. “Since 1960, we have protected more than 120,000 acres of natural areas and farmland—from the cedar swamps of the Pine Barrens to the marshlands of the Delaware Bay,” says executive director Michele S. Byers. “Our mission is to preserve land and natural resources throughout New Jersey for the benefit of all.”
To accomplish this mission, the not-for-profit organization uses three strategies: acquire land, advocate for public policy to protect it, and then steward it. Among its major projects: The 9,400-acre Franklin Parker Preserve, a former cranberry and blueberry farm in Burlington County, which the foundation acquired for $11.6 million in December 2003. The acquisition, made with state and federal funds and private contributions, was the largest private-land-conservation purchase in state history.
Today, NJCF owns and manages the property in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The foundation is undertaking several initiatives to enhance public access and to restore the property to its natural state—including a wetlands preservation and restoration project, launched in 2005 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Byers says they are currently collaborating on the restoration of 1,100 acres of cranberry bogs and blueberry fields that were altered by past agricultural practices.
The land—which is open to the public for hiking, horseback riding, bird watching, nature study, and mountain biking—can be accessed from points along county routes 563 and 532, near Chatsworth and Wharton State Forest. The foundation hopes to be finished within the next two years on a trail system, parking lots, and maps.
NJCF is celebrating its 50th anniversary on October 30 at Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown. The event will honor six former New Jersey governors and their environmental legacies.