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THE PINE BARRENS of NEW JERSEY by Lester S

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THE PINE BARRENS of NEW JERSEY by Lester S ALEX DOCNJ Fl42 .P5 l€ T46 1977 PJne BdRRens OF NEW JERSEY ,· ' Fir·st printing 1967 Revised 1977 A! • ~' l THE PINE BARRENS OF NEW JERSEY By Lester S. Thomas I F 0 R E W0 R D The New Jersey pine barrens is a broad expanse of relatively level land cov­ ering approximately one and one-third million (539,600 sq. hm.) acres on the coastal plain between the piedmont and the tidal strip, roughly eighty miles (49. 7 km.) long and thirty miles (18. 6 km.) wide. It includes most of Ocean and Atlan- j'~, tic Counties,much of Burlington County, and portions of Cape May, Cumberland,Glou­ cester,and Camden Counties. Fringes of the pine area extend also in Salem and Mon- 1 mouth Counties. This unusual tract has attracted attention for over three hundred years and is still an area of interest to individuals and groups of concerned and curious persons. Correspondence from throughout the State and across the country is re­ ceived regularly with inquiries on one or more aspects of the barrens. To answer these requests for information in general, the following article has been p~e­ pared. No attempt at detailed description has been made. Persons wishing more complete information should consult the appropriate references in the appended bibliography. Appreciation is extended to the several persons whose suggestions and con­ structive criticism have been most helpful in assembling the information in the following pages. THE WILD PINE LANDS The first white men to enter the pine lands of southern New Jersey undoubt­ edly followed the few established trails of the Lenape that led to the shell fisheries on the coast. The peculiar wildness of the region, empty of human life, must have impressed these early explorers, accustomed as they were to the massive deciduous forest trees and the grass meadows of the uplands, and the river valley and the coastal marshes where an occasional Indian village could be found. Al­ though these trails through the pines represented a long day's journey, there is no evidence of any permanent Indian camp or village within the area. The red man apparently held tQe deep pine lands in certain awe and shunned them as far as possible. There is a strange wild beauty in this region, even today, that both attracts and repels. It is not unlike the desert in this respect. Unique properly describes the pine barrens, but those sensitive to the appeal of open space prefer the word, incomparable, in visualizing this block of wilderness. The average citizen, flying over it or driving the long straight highways that transect it, is likely to think of it as wasteland. And those persons always eager to exploit undeveloped open areas see only what they consider a great potential for profit and tax revenue. Botanists, foresters, naturalists, biologists, and many outdoor recreationists, however, will quickly challenge any views that threaten the status quo of the pine lands. There are places in the pine barrens--the Apple Pie Hill fire tower, for in­ stance--where the outlook to the four horizons is an apparently unbroken carpet of forest, with a glimmer here and there of small ponds and only a distant hint or two of human intrusion. And this amazing wilderness is less than a hundred miles (160.9 km.) from New York City at the north and Philadelphia at the south! Attrac­ tive at all seasons--spring and summer with the beauty of countless bog flowers and the fragrance of sun-warmed pines and cedars,autumn with a colorful palette on a background of green, and winter with its snow-streaked, almost stark and lonely aspect--the region has a continuing appeal the more striking because of its geo­ graphic setting. SOIL AND FOREST -The white sandy soil of the barrens, overlaying what is known to geologists as the Cohansey formation, is largely infertile. With the exception of areas of l blueberry and cranberry culture and isolated truck farms, it is not suited to commercial agriculture. The natural forest covering the bulk of the region is predominantly pitch.pine, Pinus rigida, with scattered stands of shortleaf pine, Pinus echinata. "In no other region in North America does the pitch pine cover such an extended area of country as a dominant tree," (Harshberger, 1916). Oak trees of several species are common where the pines have been removed, and oak becomes the climax type where firmly established. In the swamps and along the streams, southern white cedar and swamp magnolia are very common, with sour gum, red maple, and gray birch on somewhat drier soils nearby. 1 The forest understory and thicket consists of a variety of woody shrubs and sub-shrubs such as blueberries, huckleberries, sweet pepperbush, buttonbush, winterberries, chokeberries, poison sumac, shad bush, staggerbush, greenbriers, Virginia creeper, and others. There is also an abundance of sweetfern, sand myrtle, leatherleaf, sheep laurel, hudsonia, bearberry, viburnums, and azalea. Well over a hundred species of herbaceous plants, some exceedingly rare, are found in the bogs, the wooded swamps, the dry woods, and along the roadsides. In areas of fire­ ravaged woodland, the underbrush is often very dense and furnishes protection for the young pitch pines that sprout profusely from the burned stumps of the parent trees. THE PLAINS In the east central part of the region there is a tract of about 12,000 acres (4,856.4 sq. hm.) popularly known as the "Plains." This tract supports a growth of unusually scrubby oak and pine which scarcely reaches an average height of four feet. Scientists have published several theories accounting for this stunted for­ est, the consensus pointing to a combination of factors: fires, infertility,expo­ sure, and aridity. But under the trees grows a fairly heavy ground-cover, mostly heath types, with a generous mixture of herbaceous plants. Typical of the Plains flora are carpets of the Conrad crowberry, Corema conradi, and the bearberry,fi.rc­ tostaphylos uva-ursi, both plants reminiscent of the cold barrens in the North. In spite of repeated fires which have swept the Plains since before white settlement, an interesting variety of plant life continues to thrive here. BERRY CULTURE Extensive acreages of swamp land in the pine region have been cleared over the years for cranberry growing, and large tracts of drier ground are cultivated for blueberry production. In a few sections, as in the vicinity of Tabernacle and Indian Mills, considerable truck farming is carried on. An interesting industry of the pine barrens, which has disappeared in many sections, is the gathering and drying of sphagnum moss for sale to nurserymen and for packing and insulation. In former days, local inhabitants augmented the family incomes by gathering laurel, mistle­ toe, arbutus, and medicinal herbs for sale in Philadelphia and other cities. The cranberry lands were established in cut-over white cedar swamps. Where cranberry growing has been abandoned the bogs have gradually changed to savannah types with grasses, other herbaceous plants, and seedling deciduous trees and shrubs moving in. Occasionally the original cedar reestablishes itself in small areas. Where conditions have been favorable, a few pines will also enter the bog edges. Students of natural phenomena find here an excellent example of plant suc­ cession and the attempt by nature to vegetate an exposed area. 2 ~ I WATERS Under the mats of vegetation and layers of sand is a fairly constant water table, • the top of a great reservoir underlying the whole region. It was this tremendous water resource that influenced the late Joseph Wharton to make wide­ spread land purchases in the last century; this area of almost 10,000 (4,047 sq. hm.) acres is now owned by the State and called the Wharton State Forest, Wharton estimated that the water from his holdings would furnish nearby cities with up to 300 million (1,135.5 ml.) gallons daily. Politics dictated, however, that he could not export water into another state; the water enterprise was abandoned. The principal streams which drain the region are the several branches of the Rancocas Creek at the west; Great Egg Harbor at the southeast; Westecunck, Oyster, and Cedar Creeks and the Toms, Metedeconk, and Manasquan Rivers at the east and north; and the Mullica River and its tributaries (the Wading, Bass, and Batsto Rivers and the Nescochague and Landing Creeks) easterly. The Oswego River and Tulpehocken Creek flow into the Wading River. Because the pines are a land of low relief, most stream banks are low and sometimes barely distinct where the water flows through a wooded swamp. It is not unusual for creekside vegetation to reach across the streams and form a continuous canopy over the slow-moving water. Only where the terrain dips or the channel is constricted, does the current pick up sufficiently to resemble small rapids. The streams of the pine barrens are lazy waters. EARLY INDUSTRY Long before Wharton saw water sale possibilities in the massive aquifers of the pine lands, Jerseymen, who were not impressed by Indian pine barrens folklore, were using the region fo:: whatever profitable ventures the barrens afforded. First to move in were the loggers who cut clean. Pine and cedar lumber moved steadily to shipyards and nearby towns foryears before, during and after the Revolution. Roads to the coastal communities followed theloggers and charcoal burners, and hostelries were established at a number of places along the sand roads. Bog iron was dis­ covered in the barrens, and forges and furnaces were built on the major streams and branches. Iron proved a fairly profitable venture for a generation or so, but shortly after the mid-nineteenth century the Jersey iron industry practically dis­ appeared.
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