The Nature Conservancy Finalizes Land Donation to Ocean County

[Teegate]

The Nature Conservancy Finalizes Land Donation to Ocean County - Insider NJ

More than 3,000 Acres Transferred to Forked River Mountain Wilderness Area in Lacey Township (May 3, 2023—Chester, NJ)—The Nature Conservancy (TNC) announced today that its donation to Ocean County of more than 3,100 acres of pine forest in Lacey Township has been finalized. The land enhances...

www.insidernj.com

 

[NJChileHead]

Oooh now I just need a map of the roads/trails!

 

[Boyd]

I'm still confused about ownership in that area. When I made my 2020 topo, I went through the articles about the new public land, identified the parcels and marked them as openspace. When I built the new PinesXT site last month, I used the newest NJDEP openspace dataset and was surprised to see that none of those properties were included yet. Guess it takes a few years to for them update things?

For example, the big parcel that contains the "mountains" (~4000 acres by my calculation, ~6000 according to the tax record) still shows John Brunetti as the owner.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#14/39.847714/-74.289320/parcels07/0/0/

But, in reality, I think all of the green-shaded areas on my 2020 topo are actually public openspace.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#14/39.847978/-74.288633/pines2020/0/0/

I didn't know what the new openspace would be called back in 2020, so I labelled it as "Forked River Mountain Preserve". From the article, I see that this new land will be called the "Forked River Mountain Wilderness Area". Is that just the new 3,100 acres, or are they re-naming the whole region? As things currently stand (AFAIK) there's the Forked River Mountain WMA, Forked River Mountain Preserve and Candace McKee Ashmun Preserve around there (maybe others?).

 

[bobpbx]

Yes, except for the sand plants and a few very small private parcels, it's all preserved. The big area the county bought from brunetti is about 8,000 acres. We are good to go, the recorders are behind is all.

 

[NJChileHead]

I'm still confused about ownership in that area. When I made my 2020 topo, I went through the articles about the new public land, identified the parcels and marked them as openspace. When I built the new PinesXT site last month, I used the newest NJDEP openspace dataset and was surprised to see that none of those properties were included yet. Guess it takes a few years to for them update things?

For example, the big parcel that contains the "mountains" (~4000 acres by my calculation, ~6000 according to the tax record) still shows John Brunetti as the owner.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#14/39.847714/-74.289320/parcels07/0/0/

But, in reality, I think all of the green-shaded areas on my 2020 topo are actually public openspace.

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#14/39.847978/-74.288633/pines2020/0/0/

I didn't know what the new openspace would be called back in 2020, so I labelled it as "Forked River Mountain Preserve". From the article, I see that this new land will be called the "Forked River Mountain Wilderness Area". Is that just the new 3,100 acres, or are they re-naming the whole region? As things currently stand (AFAIK) there's the Forked River Mountain WMA, Forked River Mountain Preserve and Candace McKee Ashmun Preserve around there (maybe others?).

Boyd your maps are an amazing resource once again. Thank you!

Anyone familiar with the sugar sand situation there? Is there awareness of anything an AWD (RAV 4) can't handle as far as sand or holes?