The beautiful and pristine New Jersey Pinelands area, also known as the Pine Barrens, is a region stretching from Brendan T. Byrne (formerly called Lebanon) State Forest to the Forked River Mountains area and out to Long Beach Island, Barnegat and Tuckerton along the shore. It extends across eight New Jersey counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Monmouth (outliers), and Ocean.
Spreading across the most densely populated state in the country, the New Jersey Pine Barrens remains a dynamic patchwork of open space and rural living. Cranberry and blueberry farms thrive in the sandy soils once deemed useless by 17th- and 18th-century settlers. The Pine Barrens landscape covers 1 million acres of forest, wetlands and quaint hamlets and represents nearly a quarter of the state—the most extensive undeveloped area on the eastern seaboard between Boston and Richmond. Vast expanses of pitch pine and shrub oak forests dominate the barrens. Many of the species found there, including the pygmy pines that range from 4 to 10 feet high, depend on regular intervals of intense heat (such as fires) to pop open their cones, releasing seeds and spurring new growth. (Source: Nature Conservancy)
There is a lot of unique history, culture and folklore associated with the area and the people, called pineys, who lived deep inside it. See the links below for details.
Music of the Pine Barrens. Well within the heart of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, isolated folks, charcoal burners, berry pickers, wood cutters, and clammers gathered on Saturday night for generations to sing their folk tales while a fiddler played, accompanied by a guitarist. The whine of the piney ballads they created tell the tales around the love of their work in the pines. Their descendants are still playing the ballads their English ancestors brought to America 300 years ago. The Albert Music Hall in Waretown, New Jersey (whose roots go back roughly 60 years to when brothers Joe and George Albert held informal Saturday night jam sessions at their hunting cabin deep in the pines) now provides the home base for Saturday night fiddling, banjo picking, or strumming a guitar to "The Sounds of the Jersey Pines." (Source: LOC - Local Legacies)
Today, the Pine Barrens are a federally and state protected area that provide tremendous ecological benefit to the region as well as great natural outdoor attractions. The following links provide more information resources, documents and images about the history, culture, ecology and inherent beauty of the area, as well as the variety of recreational and sightseeing opportunities for you to experience and enjoy.
(Click here for related Pine Barrens blog articles.)
| Canoeing and Kayaking in the Pinelands | Canoeing and Kayaking in the Pinelands [Photo Album], especially in Wharton State Forest is a wonderful experience for all ages. [Click on link for rental resources and also here for additional canoeing outfitters.] Download "Pineland Canoe Liveries" (PDF). |
| Ecotourism | For a New Jersey ecotourism vacation like no other, you can’t beat a trip to the world-famous Pinelands, also called the Jersey Pine Barrens. Pine Lands ecotourism opportunities are vast – the Pinelands span one million acres and take up a whopping 20 percent of New Jersey’s land mass. Pinelands ecotourism trips include unique eco-systems, tea-colored streams and rivers, pygmy pine forests, farmland, and even spooky legends about the Jersey Devil. Go hiking and biking, fish, explore nature and local history, take a day or overnight canoe or camping trip. [NJ Ecotourism Guides (PDFs)] [NJ Conservation Foundation] [All In New Jersey - Pinelands] (Click here for NJ Ecotourism and animal welfare organizations.) |
| Music of the Pine Barrens | Pine Barrens Jamboree - annual event. Albert Music Hall - The New Jersey Pinelands Cultural & Historical Preservation Society presents Live Music Every Saturday Night at the Albert Music Hall in Waretown, NJ -- Bring the whole family for an evening of live country, bluegrass, folk, Americana and pinelands music each Saturday night at 7:30 pm. until 11:30 pm. [Local school site about Albert Music Hall] |
| NJPineBarrens.com | "The Pine Barrens is a perfect place to escape the bordeom of suburban life. Narrow sand trails that once carried stagecoaches and mule trains are perfect places to hike. Restored villages such as Batsto and Allaire State Park provide a glimpse of what life was two centuries ago. Ample rivers and streams provide the perfect place to take a relaxing canoe trip...This site is one of the largest and oldest community based websites for the Pine Barrens. Through their discussion forums, image galleries that members can publish their own photos to, informative articles, and occasional get-togethers we have built a community of individuals who share a common love - the Pine Barrens." This site includes historical documents and large collection of New Jersey maps, local pictures, resource links and more. |
| Pinelands - New Jersey | Training narrative overview page on the Pinelands from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's National Conservation Training Center. See also Pinelands List of Species of Special Emphasis and Pinelands Maps. |
| Pinelands Adventures | Explore the Pinelands with Pineland Preservation Alliance expert leaders: Canoeing, Camping, Hiking, Ghost Town Tour, Jersey Devil Hunts, Wilderness Survival: Basic and Advanced and more. The Pinelands Adventures program is designed to introduce you to the pleasures of the New Jersey Pinelands with their superb guide and naturalist Russell Juelg or with one of their expert guest leaders. [Check out their downloable newsletters.] |
| Pinelands Commission | The Pinelands of New Jersey is our country's first National Reserve and a U.S. Biosphere Reserve of the Man and the Biosphere Program. An internationally important ecological region, The Pinelands is 1.1 million acres in size and occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area. It is the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston and is underlain by aquifers containing 17 trillion gallons of some of the purest water in the land. Click here for downloadable "Pinelands Facts" (PDF). The Pinelands Commission was formed to protect and enhance its natural and cultural resources. It impacts most developers and property owners, especially in South Jersey. Here you will find anything related to the commission: announcements, restrictions, guidelines, application forms, education and related links. See their Pinelands Pastimes page for information about activities, events, downloadable recreational guide (PDF) and opportunities to enjoy the many treasures of the New Jersey Pinelands. |
| Pinelands Guide - BC Library | The Burlington County Library's resource guide to the New Jersey Pinelands. See their special article on "Fire Effects in New Jersey's Pine Barrens". Also additional articles on the history, profile, vegetation, vertebrae, fact sheet, the Jersey Devil, local and state links. |
| Pinelands National Preserve (Wikipedia) | "New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve (also known as Pinelands National Reserve) preserves the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Pinelands is a unique ecosystem of historic villages and berry farms amid vast oak-pine forests (pine barrens), extensive wetlands, and diverse species of plants and animals. It is protected by state and federal legislation through management by local, state, and federal governments and the private sector." -Wikipedia National Park Service - Pinelands National Reserve official web site |
| Pine Barrens of NJ (Wikipedia) | "The name "pine barrens" refers to the area's sandy, acidic, nutrient-poor soil, which didn't take well to the crops originally imported by European settlers. However, these uncommon conditions led the Pine Barrens to develop a unique and diverse spectrum of plant life, especially orchids and carnivorous plants. The area is also notable for its populations of rare pygmy pitch pines and other plant species that depend on fire to reproduce (fire is very frequent in the Pine Barrens). The highly organic sandy silt that composes much of the area's soil is referred to by the locals as sugar sand." -Wikipedia |
| Pine Barrens (All Experts.com) | "Pine barrens, also known as "pine plains", "sand plains", "pinelands", "pine bush", and "pitch pine-scrub oak barrens", occur throughout the northeastern U.S. from New Jersey to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest and Canada...Barrens are dependent on fire to prevent invasion by woody species. In the absence of fire, barrens will proceed through successional stages from savanna to closed-canopy forest. Open barrens are now rare and imperiled globally, as suppression of wildfires has allowed woody vegetation to take over in most one-time barrens. In North Americaa, barrens exist primarily in the Midwest and along the east coast." -AllExperts.com |
| Pine Barrens: A Sense of Place | "New Jersey, a small coastal state on the East Coast of the United States, is often thought of as being an endless stretch of highways, factories, and landfills. Though New Jersey is a highly industrialized state, it does have places that are wild and undeveloped. One of these areas is called the New Jersey Pine Barrens..." [Click on link for full story] |
| Piney Lore | History and Folklore of the New Jersey Pinelands. Check their Piney Links page. |
| Piney Power | All about the Pine Barrens: "The Pine Barrens of New Jersey is a beautiful and fascinating region, from Brendan T. Byrne (formerly Lebanon) State Forest to the Forked River Mountains, Barnegat and Tuckerton west to Chatsworth - the "heart" of the pinelands, and many other spots. Here you will find an insider's tour. Whether you're down for the day, here for a vacation or a canoe trip, thinking of relocating, or just a "local" looking for something new and exciting to do, there's bound to be something in the Pinelands of NJ to interest you." |
| Photo Essay: Pine Barrens of NJ | New Jersey photographer Michael Hogan is featured in one of Environmental News Service's series of photo essays. The images of southern New Jersey with commentary, are from the book, "The Natural Wonders of the Jersey Pines and Shore," which Hogan illustrated, working with author Robert A. Peterson, 1956-2003, the educator, journalist, historian, and sportsman. |
| Plants of the NJ Pine Barrens | A photo album by photographer Mike Baker including an indexed and searchable species by species photographic catalog of many pine barrens plants, a dynamic "What's Blooming Now" page and a dynamic Pine Barrens Plant Identification Key tool. See also Pine-Barrens Sights. Gorgeous photographs. |
| Plants of the NJ Pine Barrens (GCU) | Descriptions of plants, with photos, of the New Jersey Pinelands, with extensive links and additional photo resources with beautiful images. |
| The Birds of the Pine Barrens | Birdnature.com's page listing some of the birds of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, in additional to birds found in other Pinelands on the East coast. |
| The Nature Conservatory: Pine Barrens | Cultivating the Garden State’s backyard of forests, farms and valuable groundwater requires a strong plan for land use and the commitment of its residents. |
| The Pine Barrens | Information for the Pine Barrens Enthusiast: history, Jersey Devil folklore and tall tales, videos, discussion forums. |
| NJ Pine Barrens and Down Jersey | Exploring the history, culture and ecology of South Jersey. Links, downloadable historical documents and maps, discussion forums. |
| South Jersey Woods | Adventures in the South Jersey woods (or thereabouts), including Pinelands. Photos and comments |
| South Jersey Unpaved | Exploring the NJ Pine Barrens: pictures and commentary of sites of interest as well as resources links. |
| NJ Pineways | Photo galleries, including seasonal shots. |
| NJ Pines Kids | Information about the Pine Barrens for Kids (does not appear to be recently updated). |
| NJ Public Television | Films about the New Jersey Pinelands, available for ordering. |
| School Sites | The Eleanor Van Gelder School's Pine Barrens site The St. Paul School's NJ Pinelands site |
| NY Times Weekend Warrior Article | Weekend Warrior; Beyond Malls and Toll Roads, the Pine Barrens' Peace, by Peter Van Allen:
"We were paddling an aluminum canoe under a canopy of trees on a narrow river that wound through cedar-smelling woods and swamps. The banks were mossy and dark. It could have been the Bayou or parts of the Everglades. But this unbroken forest, one of the largest on the East Coast, was within an hour of Philadelphia and two hours of New York City, in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. This was not what we think of when we think of the nation's most densely populated state..."
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| American Profile: Chatsworth | "From the porch of Buzby’s general store in Chatsworth, N.J., you can see just about every building in what residents call “The Capital of the Pine Barrens.” Up the road is the White Horse Inn, a reminder of what the town was when that title was bestowed. Pineys say life is different in the Barrens, and in Chatsworth they’re trying to preserve it..." |
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