The Maurice River (Berkery, Sheri
"Do you know how to pronounce these S.J. town names?"
'' Courier-Post'', September 5, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2022, via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

. "Maurice River/Maurice River Township: MAW-ris, instead of More-eece. So basically, pronounce it like a mans name, but not the one it looks like.")) is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inland ...

Salem County Salem County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its western boundary is formed by the Delaware River and its eastern terminus is the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects the county with New Castle, Delaware. Its cou ...

and

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberla ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in the United States. The river was named for Maurice, Prince of Orange.

Watershed and course

The Maurice River, pronounced "MAW-ris," is approximately long with a drainage area of 386 sq mi (1,000 km²).New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, Trenton, NJ. (2012)
"Watershed Management Area 17: Maurice, Salem, Cohansey."
/ref> It is the second longest and second largest tributary to Delaware Bay. Its watershed includes an extensive southern portion of the coastal forested

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s known as 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 ...

. Its mouth on Delaware Bay is surrounded by extensive

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

es and has provided a historically important

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

ing ground. Maurice River from the Bluffs

It is born at the confluence of Still Run and Scotland Run, beneath the waters of

Willow Grove Lake Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

in Pittsgrove,

and flows generally south-southeast, passing west of

Vineland ''Vineland'' is a 1990 novel by Thomas Pynchon, a postmodern fiction set in California, United States in 1984, the year of Ronald Reagan's reelection.Knabb 2002 Through flashbacks by its characters, who have lived the sixties in their youth, th ...

. At Millville it is impounded to form the Union Lake reservoir, approximately long. South of Millville it becomes navigable, forming a

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

that empties into

Maurice River Cove Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor * Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and L ...

on Delaware Bay. The estuary is joined from the northeast by

Menantico Creek Manantico Creek, spelled Menantico on federal maps, is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Maurice River in Cumberland County, New Jersey in ...

, the Manumuskin River, and Muskee Creek.

Water quality and stewardship

The river is considered especially pristine for the region, forming a critical ecological link between the Pine Barrens and the Delaware Bay systems, except that the State Of New Jersey advises against eating more than 8 ounces of fish caught in the river in any week or month, depending on the species, for the general population and advises against eating any fish from the Maurice River for the High Risk population.https://www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/fishadvisories/Fish_Advisories_2019.pdf It is the location of one of the only stands of

wild rice Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...

in New Jersey, and provides habitat for 53 percent of the species in New Jersey designated as endangered. In 1993,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

designated of the river and its tributaries as the Maurice National Scenic and Recreational River, as part of the

National Wild and Scenic River The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free- ...

s program. A local nonprofit organization,

Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc., or "CU", is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) regional watershed organization. It was founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1986. CU received Environmental Quality Awards from the Uni ...

, is a regional watershed organization that focuses its work on the Maurice River watershed, from Willow Grove Lake southward. The South Jersey Land and Water Trust focuses on the northern portion of the watershed, from Willow Grove Lake northward.

Tributaries

* Manumuskin River * Muddy Run

References

External links

Wild and Scenic Maurice River

U.S. Geological Survey: NJ stream gaging stations
* {{authority control Tributaries of Delaware Bay Rivers in the Pine Barrens (New Jersey) Rivers of New Jersey Rivers of Cumberland County, New Jersey Rivers of Salem County, New Jersey Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States

Watershed and course

Water quality and stewardship

Tributaries

See also

References

External links