Here is an article about the dedication Bob and I were at.
Guy
http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,1061161,00.html
Cranberry preserve: 9,400 acres in Pinelands
Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/25/04
By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER
WOODLAND TOWNSHIP -- Drained of water under the warm sun of early autumn, drying cranberry vines crunched underfoot. Generations of agriculture on 9,400 acres in the heart of the Pine Barrens came to an end yesterday, in an open-air ceremony that brought together onetime adversaries from one of New Jersey's great environmental battles.
The DeMarco family's cranberry farm at Chatsworth yesterday became the Franklin Parker Preserve, named for a prominent conservationist and longtime chairman of the state Pinelands Commission, enforcers of a land-use plan that strictly limits development on nearly 1 million acres, a full 22 percent of New Jersey's land mass.
Sitting in the front row of seats was Garfield DeMarco -- third-generation farmer, former Burlington County political boss, and once Parker's irascible critic.
"In the early days of the Pinelands Commission, I didn't think Garfield was on board," Parker said, his tone as dry as the surrounding bog. As the laughter subsided, Parker added: "But he's come around, and we owe him a debt of gratitude."
It's surely one of the stranger episodes in the recent history of the Pinelands, which were declared a first-ever "national reserve" by federal legislation in 1978 and targeted for regional zoning by the state Pinelands Protection Act of 1979.
As the head of Burlington's powerful Republican Party and a leader of the farming community, DeMarco took a hard line against state control of land use. But his problems with environmental activists didn't stop him from striking up a friendship with Michele Byers, now executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.
Back in the early 1980s, Byers was the self-described "little watchdog-groupie" tracking the Pinelands Commission for the foundation. Two decades later, she and DeMarco were talking about the future of the 9,400 acres along the Wading River.
Battered by a glutted cranberry market and low prices, a pessimistic view of the industry and his legal battles with the government over wetlands violations, DeMarco wanted out. In 2003 he and the conservation foundation struck a deal to acquire the entire tract, valued at $24 million, for $12 million.
"It took a great deal of guts on the part of a very strong board to commit to a purchase price" at that level, said Sam Lambert, former president of the conservation foundation's board of trustees. It is the single largest purchase of land in New Jersey history by a nonprofit group.
'Needed to be done'
"We felt that no matter what it took, this needed to be done," said Byers, who mounted a fund-raising effort to bring in more donors and government partners to close the deal. The state contributed $3.5 million from the State Land Acquisition Fund and will retain a 40 percent ownership of the tract.
The property links up about 100,000 acres of public open space in the nearby Wharton and Brendan Byrne state forests and establishes permanent protection for the Wading River headwaters, she said.
Downstream, the Wading River is perhaps the most popular canoe route in the Pinelands. The conservation foundation is allowing public access to the Parker Preserve, but wants to keep it low-key foot traffic. There will be a handicapped accessible trail to a bird observation platform in the future, and possibly an equestrian trail, Byers said.
But there won't be commercial canoe rental access to the upper Wading, which is wild and mostly inaccessible to paddlers. Foundation officials are determined to keep out off-road vehicles too, for the protection of about two dozen threatened and endangered plant and animal species, from bald eagles to globally rare flowering plants like bog asphodel.
"Right now the (boundary) signs say 'Access by Permission.' That means we want to know when you are out here," said Emile DeVito, director of science and land management for the foundation. People who want to hike on the trails should called the foundation at (908) 234-1225 to find out what areas are safe to use, he said.
Over time, all of the farm's bogs will be returned to natural wetlands, by modifying the complex water-management system to maintain certain lev-els, DeVito said. Some areas will be maintained as wetland meadows, others allowed to re-turn to cedar swamp, depend-ing on what kinds of native plants and animals would bene-fit from those changes, he said.
Kirk Moore: (732) 557-5728
Guy
http://www.app.com/app/story/0,21625,1061161,00.html
Cranberry preserve: 9,400 acres in Pinelands
Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/25/04
By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER
WOODLAND TOWNSHIP -- Drained of water under the warm sun of early autumn, drying cranberry vines crunched underfoot. Generations of agriculture on 9,400 acres in the heart of the Pine Barrens came to an end yesterday, in an open-air ceremony that brought together onetime adversaries from one of New Jersey's great environmental battles.
The DeMarco family's cranberry farm at Chatsworth yesterday became the Franklin Parker Preserve, named for a prominent conservationist and longtime chairman of the state Pinelands Commission, enforcers of a land-use plan that strictly limits development on nearly 1 million acres, a full 22 percent of New Jersey's land mass.
Sitting in the front row of seats was Garfield DeMarco -- third-generation farmer, former Burlington County political boss, and once Parker's irascible critic.
"In the early days of the Pinelands Commission, I didn't think Garfield was on board," Parker said, his tone as dry as the surrounding bog. As the laughter subsided, Parker added: "But he's come around, and we owe him a debt of gratitude."
It's surely one of the stranger episodes in the recent history of the Pinelands, which were declared a first-ever "national reserve" by federal legislation in 1978 and targeted for regional zoning by the state Pinelands Protection Act of 1979.
As the head of Burlington's powerful Republican Party and a leader of the farming community, DeMarco took a hard line against state control of land use. But his problems with environmental activists didn't stop him from striking up a friendship with Michele Byers, now executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.
Back in the early 1980s, Byers was the self-described "little watchdog-groupie" tracking the Pinelands Commission for the foundation. Two decades later, she and DeMarco were talking about the future of the 9,400 acres along the Wading River.
Battered by a glutted cranberry market and low prices, a pessimistic view of the industry and his legal battles with the government over wetlands violations, DeMarco wanted out. In 2003 he and the conservation foundation struck a deal to acquire the entire tract, valued at $24 million, for $12 million.
"It took a great deal of guts on the part of a very strong board to commit to a purchase price" at that level, said Sam Lambert, former president of the conservation foundation's board of trustees. It is the single largest purchase of land in New Jersey history by a nonprofit group.
'Needed to be done'
"We felt that no matter what it took, this needed to be done," said Byers, who mounted a fund-raising effort to bring in more donors and government partners to close the deal. The state contributed $3.5 million from the State Land Acquisition Fund and will retain a 40 percent ownership of the tract.
The property links up about 100,000 acres of public open space in the nearby Wharton and Brendan Byrne state forests and establishes permanent protection for the Wading River headwaters, she said.
Downstream, the Wading River is perhaps the most popular canoe route in the Pinelands. The conservation foundation is allowing public access to the Parker Preserve, but wants to keep it low-key foot traffic. There will be a handicapped accessible trail to a bird observation platform in the future, and possibly an equestrian trail, Byers said.
But there won't be commercial canoe rental access to the upper Wading, which is wild and mostly inaccessible to paddlers. Foundation officials are determined to keep out off-road vehicles too, for the protection of about two dozen threatened and endangered plant and animal species, from bald eagles to globally rare flowering plants like bog asphodel.
"Right now the (boundary) signs say 'Access by Permission.' That means we want to know when you are out here," said Emile DeVito, director of science and land management for the foundation. People who want to hike on the trails should called the foundation at (908) 234-1225 to find out what areas are safe to use, he said.
Over time, all of the farm's bogs will be returned to natural wetlands, by modifying the complex water-management system to maintain certain lev-els, DeVito said. Some areas will be maintained as wetland meadows, others allowed to re-turn to cedar swamp, depend-ing on what kinds of native plants and animals would bene-fit from those changes, he said.
Kirk Moore: (732) 557-5728