From the Press of Atlantic City

December 05, 2008

Years of effort bring two major land buys in one week

By LEE PROCIDA

Staff Writer

It's been a good week for the trees of southern Ocean County.

On Monday the county inked a deal with a landowner in Ocean Township to purchase an 877-acre property for $8.1 million.

Two days later, the Board of Chosen Freeholders agreed to provide $500,000 toward the New Jersey Conservation Foundation's $2.7 million purchase of 614 acres in the Forked River Mountains forest in Lacey and Ocean townships.

Both purchases took years to put together, with the NJCF working for about 15 years on their acquisition while the county's deal almost fell apart after years of talks.

But, by a stroke of ecological luck and sheer coincidence, the partly adjoined
lands were preserved indefinitely in the same week.

"It's kind of interesting to see how this all plays out," said Chris Jage, the NJCF's assistant director for southern New Jersey. "These are some of the last large pieces left."

The NJCF signed its contract to buy the 614-acre property from the Interboro Holding Co. back in October, but it couldn't close the deal until the county vowed to provide its half-million dollars. The freeholders approved the contribution at their regular meeting Wednesday, and the county will own 30 acres of it along Wells Mills Road while the rest is deed restricted.

As for the 877-acre property - which officials said has been owned by the Horner family for several generations - the county expects to receive a $1 million grant from the Pinelands Conservation Resource Fund and possibly another $1.2 million from the state Green Acres program.

With the Horner property also connected to the 900-acre Wells Mills Park, the county and NJCF has assembled something like the Pennsylvania, Pacific and North Carolina Avenues of southern Ocean County: three, green, contiguous and highly important properties.

Of course, with the obvious exception that in this case they won't be building any houses or hotels.

"It will remain in its natural condition," said county Planning Director David McKeon about the newly acquired land, "and will never be developed for active recreation."
The Horner property is actually the county's largest acquisition in the history of the Natural Lands Trust Fund, and although the freeholders approved its purchase in January, it took nearly a year for the county to work out a deal with the Horners.

The week's agreements are not only serendipitous for the county and NJCF, but fit into the plans for preservation that officials in Ocean and Lacey townships had as well.

"We're very excited about that," said Ocean Township Committeeman Bob Kraft, describing how it fits into the township's plans for development. "We're trying to secure properties around the fringe of the (town center) so development is inside of the center and the fringe is large green beltways that will forever be preserved."

Jage said there is still plenty of land to preserve in southern Ocean County, pointing out that the equivalent to Boardwalk would be a 5,000 acre piece that is currently not for sale and makes up about half of the Forked River Mountain forest, where the Interboro tract is located.

Still, he said, having most of the three properties connect to form 1,600 acres of contiguous habitat is key to preserving the natural environment there.

"These are large areas of land where animals need to migrate, where water needs to flow through," he said. "So by having a larger mass of land, the better you're preserving the ecological system."

"As it goes in land preservation, the larger it is the better."

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