Contact:
Steve Eisenhauer
Asst. Dir. of Protection and Stewardship
856-825-9952



We are very pleased to annouce a 1,550-acre purchase of open lands in Commercial and Downe Townships, Cumberland County, New Jersey. The purchase includes an 800-acre area called Bear Swamp West which is home to an old-growth forest with trees dating back as much as 400 years. The rare forest had been listed by federal and state authorities as one of the most important unprotected habitats in the country.

Peter Williamson, Vice President of Conservation Services, noted that Bear Swamp has been on our target list for more than thirty-years. “This is a very special place,” Williamson said. “It really is a primeval forest that has been left virtually untouched by humans. That such a place exists on the East Coast in this day and age is miraculous and its loss would have been tragic.”

The old-growth forest was initially brought to our attention by now-retired conservation biologist, Stevens Heckscher. He pushed to preserve it for decades, but the landowner had not been interested in selling until more recently. The forest is dominated by red maple, sweet gum, black gum and American holly among other species. Some of the trees in the woodland have reached record heights; including holly trees four times their normal height.

Bear Swamp West is adjacent to and becomes part of Natural Lands Trust’s Glades Wildlife Refuge. Two other properties totaling 253 acres adjacent to the Glades Refuge were also included in the purchase from U.S. Silica, a sand-mining company active in southern New Jersey. The Glades Refuge grows to 7,000 acres with the three additions.

The fourth and final area of land included in the purchase consists of 450 acres next to our Porch Preserve along the Maurice River. According to Williamson, this purchase doubles the size of the Porch preserve and creates opportunities for improved public access in the future.

“I don’t think we’ve ever made a purchase as large or any more important,” Williamson stated. “Bald Eagles nest in these areas and I think they are a wonderful symbol of just how valuable the forests and saltwater marshes are – not just to the environment, but to all of us who have the good fortune to live in the Delaware Valley.”

Funds for the 1,550-acre purchase came from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres program, The William Penn Foundation and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act program.