From the Philadelphia Inquirer

April 18, 2009

Land buy preserves Great Egg tributary

By Joseph Hannan
Inquirer Staff Writer

A recent land purchase by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation has increased protection for the Great Egg Harbor River in Gloucester County.

The foundation obtained a 23-acre tract, valued at $13,000, in burgeoning Monroe Township through use of its Doland Estate Fund, bequeathed by a Morris County family. The land stretches along the Squankum Branch, a tributary at the river's headwaters.

"It's a matter of putting together protection for the tributaries piece by piece," said Sandy Perry, the foundation's communications manager.

Ideally, the foundation would like to protect more land as it becomes available, she said.

The land purchased had been set aside as part of Monroe's density transfer program, said Chris Jage, the foundation's assistant director for South Jersey, but the nonprofit's stewardship gives it another layer of protection.

"In general, headwaters are some of the most important areas to protect when you're talking about watersheds," Jage said. "A lot of times, [density transfer program] parcels . . . get left behind, and there's no one there to take care of them, steward them, manage the natural resources, that sort of thing."

The neglect can lead to illegal dumping and off-road vehicle use, which can hurt wildlife, he said. The foundation's oversight will help prevent that.

The Great Egg Harbor River, used by canoeists and birders, is 59 miles long and drains into the Atlantic Ocean. It was designated a "Wild and Scenic" river in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush, affording it - but not its tributaries - additional federal protection.

The foundation hopes to use this recent purchase as the basis of a future greenway of contiguous open space between the Winslow Wildlife Management Area and the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust's Squankum Branch Preserve.

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