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Gabe, Sorry ‘bout the tardy reply. I was hoping to find interview notes about salt-haying along the Great Egg Harbor River in the ‘30s. but will wing it from memory for expediency's sake. That looks like burned salt-hay meadow to me. There’s a delightful fellow of Italian heritage who lived at...

Uh, Guys, Real men drank Blue Collar Beer from Vineland, in a dirty mug! I've been so busy lately that coffee replaced beer as a beverage. That's a a spong "pocket-type" coffee grinder in the far right. Maps and deeds often used “spung” during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to...

Gibby, That's why we have a Comprehensive Management Plan, to preserve, protect, and enhance Chatsworth's environment, keeping its Pinelands character. It is but one of 47 Villages that the Pinelands Commission has stewardship over. Follow the money. Look to see who bought land that is now or...

Ben, You seem to be missing my point. While this is all hypothetical, here's what could happen if Smart Growth came to Chatsworth. Let's say nobody could afford to buy the general store, and the property remains vacant for an extended period. Buzby's could easily become part of a bundle of...

Gabe, old friend. You want salt-hay burning, I'll give you salt-hay burning: http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.27980594006924&lng=-74.9847149848938&z=16&type=nj1930&gpx= Ben, many many thanks for providing us with the interactive maps. I use them daily! Cheers, S-M

Everyone seems to associate redevelopment with run-down neighborhoods and dilapidated structures. That is no longer an accurate description of the term. The designation has become much more liberal as to what can be deemed in need of redevelopment. In a Planning & Environmental Law article...

I just hate the behind-closed-doors nature to this matter. There is nothing I can think of that a politician has done in secret that was meant to help folks. In fairness, the Pinelands Commission has recently made good efforts at reform, and deserves accolades.

Gosh Gibby, I'm not a lawyer, so these are simply musings of a Piney. In current Pinelands use, it is the government who has redevelopment authority. Even if eminent domain were strictly within government's balliwick, that land will eventually be turned over to a private entity - with a...

Gibby, The Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), affirmed eminent domain's legitimacy. Its use continues today. If it isn't needed, why then does it continue to be included in new plans? For example the Township Solicitor insisted on its inclusion at both Richland...

Are places like Buzby's to be preserved for locals, or will their potential be packaged up by politicians and handed over to outside developers? We need to have frank discussion on the economic fate of Pinelands Villages. This issue is upon us, and decisions are being made that may forever...

Boyd, Nothing in climatology is ever that simple. There is tremendous spatial and temporal variation involved with periods of increasing and decreasing precipitation. While it is difficult to predict weather two-weeks out, let alone conjuring up long-term climate prognostications, there is a...

Mark, Good observation. I too have wondered about that phenomenon. It might be that precipitation is increasing enough to reverse a ground-drying trend that’s been going on over the last century. Nickl et al. (2010) in “Changes in annual land-surface precipitation over the twentieth and early...

OK, let me bring this thread back to the Pines. Gibby, I assure you that no one around our part of the Great Wilderness partook in Champale or Champipple, nor had either swill ever passed my lips. I’m sorry to say the same can not be said for Hammonton Brewery’s analogs Fox-Head 400 and Canadian...

Turtle, These are a great find in ephemera! The pamphlets provide neat windows into the environmental perceptions of the authors. I find it fascinating to learn about the Underhills' experience in the Pine Barrens context. Yes, Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography is really a...

Gibby, There are two candidates to consider to account for the thin vegetation. First, forest fire management practices were starting to have an effect on brush regeneration. Second, centuries of forest exploitation (lumber, cordwood, charcoal. naval stores) had reached its zenith by the ‘30s...

That be the Leapster.

I had in interesting conversation with historian Bill Leap last Saturday. As a young lad he had the privilege of exploring the Pine Barrens of Rev. Beck, the famed author of classics like Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey and Jersey Genesis: The Story of the Mullica River. During the early...

I like to think of the southern Pine Barrens an ethnic archipelago as described by Richard Stockton’s Libby Marsh (see Marsh, 1979; Berger & Sinton, 1985: 97-99). Her model suggested that railroad-era Pinelands Villages were settled by specific ethnic groups on higher ground parcels surrounded...

R-350, I can make a venison-parsnip pie that’ll knock your barn doors off, but can hardly justify its cost after factoring in a license, ammo, and time afield required to fetch Milmay beef. A farmer’s sensibility prevents me form stalking prey anymore. Give me a broomstick to catch 50 sea bass...

D57, Great food for thought. Timely too. This Thanksgiving’s store-bought turkey was expertly cooked - crispy-golden outside, tender moist inside, yet all at the table lamented the bird lacked any real flavor. Ultimately we decided that the problem was one of quantity over quality. Everyone...