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Foggy Sunrise on the Bog @ Franklin Parker Preserve, New Jersey, USA D75_7394--3

In Explore April 26, 2023.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Franklin Parker Preserve is an 11,379 acre natural preserve located in the Pine Barrens in Chatsworth, New Jersey. The preserve links Brendan Byrne, Wharton, and Penn State Forests. Franklin Parker Preserve is owned and managed by New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

 

Geography is typical of the Pine Barrens with sandy roads, pitch pines, cedar swamps, blueberry fields and tributaries of the Wading River. The 53 mile Batona Trail runs through parts of the preserve and the preserve provides habitat for rare, threatened or endangered species including bobcats, bald eagles, barred owls, northern pine snakes and pine barrens tree frogs. The area also serves as a filter for rainwater that makes its way into the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer.

 

Franklin Parker Preserve is a former cranberry farm that was once the third largest cranberry producer in the US. The farm was owned by Garfield DeMarco, an influential Burlington County Republican Chairman. He frequently opposed many of the pineland's preservation regulations but he decided to sell the land at a significant discount versus the lands estimated value in order to preserve it. The land was purchased by New Jersey Conservation Foundation in 2003 after they were able to raise the funds for preservation. After securing additional adjacent tracts of land from private owners in 2015 and 2016 the total acreage of the preserve is now 11,379. The preserve is named after Franklin E. Parker III, the first chairman of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission.

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Uploaded on May 18, 2021
Taken on May 16, 2021