The Pinelands is our country's first National Reserve and a U.S. Biosphere Reserve of the Man and the Biosphere Program. It is over 1 million acres in size and underneath it lies the Cohansey-Kirkwood aquifer containing approximately 17 trillion gallons of water. Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and
Ocean counties all house portions of the Pinelands National Reserve. The region is 2/3 privately and 1/3 publicly owned. Some of the state forests, parks and WMAs include Wharton, Brendan Byrne, Bass River, Greenwood WMA, Belleplain, Peaslee, MacNamara and Colliers Mills. Parvin State Park in Salem County is considered Pinelands-fringe. In addition, organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and New Jersey Natural Lands Trusts and New Jersey Conservation Foundation own properties that are open to the public for passive recreation.
This ecological treasure consists of a number of different habitats housing a number of endangered and threatened plant and animal species.
The Pines ecosystems have been shaped by earth, water, and fire. Considered the Outer portion of the Coastal Plain, or "Outer Coastal Plain", this area was covered by oceans 140 million years ago. Between the Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods (135-5 million BCE), the oceans rose and fell a number of times, leaving layers of sand, clays, silt, gravel, etc. About a million years ago the Pleistocene Epoch began. During the next 78,000 years, the glaciers advanced and retreated. During this time the Pine barrens were a sort of arctic tundra, and there was much more land exposed, because the water of the seas was caught up in glaciers. When the glaciers melted, the sea level rose, resulting in less land exposed. Included in this Coastal Plain were Long Island, which is home to a much smaller Pine barrens ecosystem, and parts of Staten Island.
The water in the Pines is commonly called "cedar water." The Cohansey-Kirkwood aquifer is shallow in most areas, often less than 20 feet below the surface. (Patrick) The acidic waters (4.4 mean pH) are tea colored as a result of humates and a lack of organisms to decompose them, as well as by tannic acid present in plants, especially Atlantic White Cedar, and also by naturally forming iron present in the streams. These unique conditions have allowed the Pine barrens to host a number of unique plant and animal species.
Prehistorically, the Lenape burned the Pines. That fire has shaped our Pines enormously and fire continues to do so, for succession is precluded in areas that are burned. Furthermore, there are areas of our Pines, most notably the Pines Plains, where the cones of many of the Pitch Pine are serotinous, or "late opening". This delayed opening occurs when exposed to heat, including and especially that of fire.
Further shaping the ecology of the Pines is the industrial history that proliferated throughout the 1700s and 1800s. These industries included bog iron production, glass production, clay mining, etc.
Resources
NJ Geological Survey--excellent geologcial map http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/index.html
Patrick, Ruth. Pine Barrens Surface Water http://www.burlco.lib.nj.us/pinelands/water.htm
Pinelands Commission homepage
http://www.state.nj.us/pinelands/
http://geology.rutgers.edu/103web/NJcontext/njcontext_text.html
http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/coastalplain/coastalplain.htm
Created on 2005-02-25 19:03:24 by njpinela
Updated on 2007-05-24 20:26:14 by njpinela
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