The New Jersey Pinelands is an area that stretches across 1.1 million acres of land from Trenton all the way to the colonial village of Batsto and beyond.
It encompasses a large part of South Jersey and is the largest forested area on the Eastern Seaboard between Maine and the Florida Everglades.
It is also a national reserve, meaning large parts of the area are protected by the government and cannot be developed. However, this does not mean that there are not sustainability and environmental issues ravaging the area.
The Pinelands Preservation Alliance aims to protect the Pinelands from areas and spread the mission of conservation to all those who will listen.
Founded in 1989, the Alliance is the leading voice for protecting the natural and historical resources of the Pinelands. This includes rare plants and animals, 800,000 acres of forest, the Kirkland-Cohansey aquifer, one of the largest aquifers in North America, and the history of the numerous ghost towns, people, farms, and villages that encompass the Pinelands.
“Defending nature based on the facts, good science, and the law will be a core principle of PPA’s identity and work,” said PPA Executive Director Carleton Montgomery in the Pineland Preservation Alliance’s 2024 Annual Report.
One of the major issues the Alliance is fighting is the use of off-road vehicles like quads in the Pinelands. Roads that are meant to be safe to travel are destroyed due to “mudding,” where the vehicles spin their wheels, leading to holes and ponds being formed. This makes the roads unusable for emergency vehicles to pass through.
Another major issue the group is combating is the degradation of the water supply.
Development of the land has led to the contamination of ground water, streams, ponds, and even the aquifer, all throughout the area. This contamination has led to the death of a number of native plants and wildlife as they cannot get the nutrients needed from clean water. The aquifer can hold up to 17 trillion gallons of water, and this contamination has led to the degrading of this extremely vital resource to all those who live in the Pinelands.
The Alliance has a gift shop and visitor center located in Burlington County that is meant to help spread awareness of the cause. There are trails, the center and shop itself, a large barn, and showcases of the wildlife that is vital to the Pinelands and what they are trying to protect for generations to come.
