Franklin Parker Preserve is an 11,379 acre natural preserve located in the

Pine Barrens Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pineland areas occur throughout the U.S. from Florida to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest, West, and Canada and parts of Eurasia. Perhaps the most well known pine-barre ...

Chatsworth, New Jersey Chatsworth is an unincorporated community located within Woodland Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP Code 08019. The New Jersey Central's Blue Comet passenger train ...

. The preserve links

Brendan Byrne Brendan Thomas Byrne (April 1, 1924 – January 4, 2018) was an American politician, statesman, and prosecutor, serving as the 47th governor of New Jersey from 1974 to 1982. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrne started his career as a privat ...

Wharton Wharton may refer to: Academic institutions * Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania * Wharton County Junior College * Paul R. Wharton High School * Wharton Center for Performing Arts, at Michigan State University Places * Wharton, Ch ...

, and

Penn State Forest Penn State Forest is a state park in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The forest is protected as a section of the environmentally sensitive Pine Barrens. Various recreational resources are available to visitors including Oswego La ...

s. Franklin Parker Preserve is owned and managed by

New Jersey Conservation Foundation The New Jersey Conservation Foundation is a private non-profit organization that works to preserve land and natural resources in the state of New Jersey. Since its founding in 1960, the Foundation has protected 125,000 acres of open space, farmlan ...

Description

Geography is typical of the Pine Barrens with sandy roads,

pitch pine ''Pinus rigida'', the pitch pine, is a small-to-medium-sized pine. It is native to eastern North America, primarily from central Maine south to Georgia and as far west as Kentucky. It is found in environments which other species would find unsuit ...

s, cedar swamps,

blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

fields and tributaries of the Wading River. The 53 mile

Batona Trail The Batona Trail is a hiking trail through New Jersey's Pine Barrens. The trail is one of the longest in the state, behind the Delaware and Raritan Canal Trail, the section of the Appalachian Trail within the state, the Liberty-Water Gap 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.

History

Franklin Parker Preserve was 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.

Location and parking

Located in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the preserve has two entrances, each with a sandy parking lot. The Chatsworth Lake entrance is the northernmost access (1450 County Road 532, Chatsworth, NJ 08019) and the Speedwell entrance is the southernmost access (3705 County Road 563, Chatsworth, NJ 08019). There are portable toilets located at or near both parking locations. Chatsworth location is about a five-minute walk down the trail.

Recreation options

* Hiking * X-country Skiing * Birding * Photography * Families outing * Biking (trail bikes) * Fishing * Hunting * Horseback riding

Things to see

* Two wildlife observation stations * Small suspension bridge over a stream * Blueberry fields * Rare, threatened or endangered species * Wetlands * Pitch pine forest * Old cranberry bogs

Hiking

Approximately 30 miles of marked trails are available for hiking. There are four main trails (red-hiking only, green, white, yellow-multipurpose) as well as connector trails (marked in blue) to allow for shortcuts and loops. Of interest, hiking along the red trail will take you across a small suspension bridge over a stream. Two wildlife observation platforms can be found; one along the red/green and one along the white trail. The terrain is flat and hiking is easy while trails are predominantly sandy.

References

External links

2012 Trail Map
{{coord, 39.814181, -74.547598, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Nature Conservancy preserves Protected areas of the Pine Barrens (New Jersey) Nature reserves in New Jersey Woodland Township, New Jersey 2003 establishments in New Jersey