Forked River Mountain
Views

 Newsletter of the Forked River Mountain Coalition

www.frmc.org

Vol. 7 No.3

Upcoming Events

Lacey Founder's Day
August  12
cancelled
St. Pius Flea Market/Car Show
August 20
9am to 4 pm
Barnegat Bay Decoy Show
September 23 & 24
9 am to 5 pm
Pine Barrens Jamboree
October 7
10 am to 5 pm
Batsto Country Living Fair
October 15
10 am to 4 pm
Fall Field Day
October 28
9 am to 1 pm

If you would like to volunteer and
help the Coalition at any of these
events, please call (609) 971-1635,
or click here for details.

Grants Received for
Endangered Species, Public Outreach

    The Forked River Mountain Coalition has successfully applied for funding to continue our threatened and endangered species project. The study area is located in the headwaters of the Middle Branch of the Forked River, west of the Garden State Parkway. The property is owned by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, a Coalition partner. The Barnegat Bay Environmental Grant Fund, administered by the Trust for Public Land, is funding this year's effort. The grant will allow us to continue field investigations and monitoring. We will also prepare additional management recommendations for several endangered species that will help to ensure their survival once implemented.

    A second grant from the Barnegat Bay Estuary Program, will allow us to enhance our public outreach efforts. Planned projects include improvements to our portable display that is utilized at various events throughout the year as well as to the exhibit housed at Wells Mills County Park. We are also planning improvements to our web site.

    Unfortunately, neither of the grants were fully funded at the requested level, leaving us no choice but to eliminate some of the planned activities. Upon learning of this, GPU, a coalition partner, decided to contribute the remaining funds so both projects could be fully implemented as originally planned. GPU has been working with the Coalition for several years on important stewardship projects, including our annual cleanup and more recently, our bluebird next box trail.

Web Site Updated!
Visit our web site to see our new Scenic Views page

Inside this issue . . .

News and Notes ................................... page 2
Bibliography...........................................page 3
Botanical Bounty....................................page 3

Clean Up - Wrap Up

Over 120 volunteers braved the threatening weather to help clean up that mysterious place known as the Forked River Mountains. We met at Wells Mills County Park but drove through Forked River to reach this year's cleanup sites. Three dumpsters were strategically placed a few days before as  close to the cleanup sites as possible. Some debris had been there for years, and some made its way there during the past year. Young and old worked side by side and by noon all three dumpsters were full, more than 23 tons of debris had been collected. Over the past seven years volunteers have helped remove more than 190 tons of debris from the woods around the Forked River Mountains. Afterwards we all made our way to the top of the mountain for some fun and refreshments. Plans are already underway for next year's cleanup.

     Cosponsoring the seventh annual Forked River Mountain cleanup along with the Coalition was the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the Ocean County Parks Department.

Forked River Mountain Tours
Scheduled

                      The Forked River Mountain Coalition will offer the public an opportunity to see the famous, and mysterious, Forked River Mountain. Guided tours of the area will be given as part of this year's Pine Barrens Jamboree held at Wells Mills County Park in Waretown. The date is October 7, 2000 and the event will run from 10 am to 6 pm. Tours will be given at approximately 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm and will last approximately 1-1/2 hours each.

             Persons attending a tour will be able to see spectacular views of the surrounding Pine Barrens. Included, as part of the tour will be a visit to the site of the historic Albert Brother's Homeplace. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come first-served basis. Interested persons may register for a tour at the Coalition's display on the day of the Jamboree. A $10 donation is requested.

Bluebirds Return

     The Coalition's bluebird nest box trail had fantastic results during its first year. Our nest boxes fledged a total of twelve bluebirds. The trail is largely a result of the efforts of Trustee Fred Weber of Forked River. Fred made five nest boxes from an old garvey he recovered while canoeing on the Forked River. The boat was made from Atlantic white cedar. The boxes were placed in a shrubby area along a powerline easement (permission was given by the power company, GPU, for the project). So far this year is off to a slow start. Only four bluebirds have fledged this spring, but we will continue to monitor the nest boxes over the summer.

 

Forked River Mountain Coalition
Election Results

The sixth annual meeting of the Forked River Mountain Coalition was held on May 12, 2000 at Wells Mills County Park. Elected to two year terms
on the Board of Trustees were:

Robert Caffyn, Dawn Jennings
Mickey Coen, Lorraine Sansone
Robert Moyer, Terry O'Leary and
Fred Weber

Other members of the Board of Trustees include:
Kerry Jennings, Dave DiEugenio,
Elizabeth Morgan, Theresa Lettman, John Sly,
and Carol Cortelyou

 

Fall Field Day Set

     The Fall Field Day has been set for Saturday, October 28, 2000. Scheduled work includes posting signs, clearing brush and litter removal. We will meet at Wells Mills County Park in Waretown at 9 am and will return around 1 pm. The rain date is Sunday, October 29, 2000. Bring work gloves, insect repellant and tools such as hammers, nail pouches, loppers, pruners, shears and bow saws. Please save the date!

BASIC ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE FORKED RIVER MOUNTAINS

By Elizabeth M. Morgan

     Editor's note: The following is part of a bibliography that was prepared for the Coalition by Elizabeth Morgan in 1998, the remainder will appear in a future edition of Forked River Mountain Views and can also be found here.

Beck, Henry Charlton. 1936. Jersey Genesis. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ. 304
	pp. [Read especially the chapter on Aserdaten which is still much of a mystery and is in part of
	the Forked River Mountains. Father Beck was a popular writer of folklore. He provided
	historians with a challenge to research for the facts and in doing  so made history popular.]
Beck, Henry Charlton. 1937. More Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey. E.P. Dutton & Co.,
	Inc., New York, NY. 388 pp. [Read the last chapter on the mysterious Forked River
	Mountains. While it contains many clues to the roads to get to them, it is better to find a map
	and a guide who has been there.]
Berger, Jonathan and Sinton, John. 1985. Water, Earth, and Fire: Land Use and Environmental 
	Planning in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
	221 pp. [While water, earth, and fire provide the theme, the stories on pinelands culture are 
	worth reading despite the fact the Forked River Mountains are not mentioned by name in the 
	index.]
Boyd, H.P. 1991. A Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Plexus Publications, Medford,
	NJ. 423 pp. [Anyone interested in the Pine Barrens should own this book for the reference 
	because it contains information on a great variety of subjects from history, to flora and fauna 
	including a fine section on insects. Well worth the price.]
Brinckman, John H., Jr. 1973. The Tuckerton Railroad: A Chronicle of Transportation to the New
	Jersey Seashore. First Edition, Privately Printed. 209 pp. [Fortunately, a reprint is available. 
	The railroad had a four mile right of way through the huge Lacey Tract in the Forked River 
	Mountains area alone! It opened for business on November 1, 1871, and chugged from
	Tuckerton to Whiting and back for sixty-four years and three months.]

Botanical Bounty . . .
            Pine Barren Gentian
            (Gentiana autumnalis)

     Pine Barren Gentian is a perennial leafy herbaceous plant sprouting from thick fleshy roots. Gentian stems are smooth and occasionally branched with opposite linear leaves up to 2" long. Solitary large flowers are indigo blue, trumpet shaped and appear at the tip of each stem and its branches from early September to as late as early November. Flowers have widely spreading lobes. The floral envelope is bronze-green outside with green speckles on the inner throat which flower into five indigo petals. Color variations may occur, including rare white forms.

    Pine Barren Gentian grows in moist, open sandy areas within pitch pine lowland forest, adjacent to  boggy areas, in swales, along the edges of roadside ditches and even along firebreaks, under mowed power lines, and other areas subject to seasonal mowing and also in the vicinity of cultivated cranberry bog operations. Pine Barren Gentian, an early successional species, does not  tolerate deep shade or excessive competition from vigorous shrub and tree species. It is typically found in association with Sand Myrtle, Pyxie Moss, Slender Aster and Pine Barren Reed Grass.

       Pine Barren Gentian is globally restricted and reaches its northern-most limit of range in Monmouth County, NJ. Stable populations exist in North Carolina and South Carolina, but this species is rare in Virginia and extirpated in  Delaware. It is found in scattered populations within the New Jersey Pine Barrens where it is considered an endangered species.

       Some threats to Pine Barren Gentian are off-road vehicles, frequent and untimely mowing, imprudent grading and the  use of herbicides. Collection of specimens by gardeners is also a concern.

      Pine Barren Gentian actually benefits from such site alterations as timely mowing, occasional wildfire, prescribed burning and by prudent forestry practices. It has proven to flourish in areas where proper "disturbances" have occurred.  Some examples are recent road abandonments, under cleared high tension lines and in the vicinity of modest ground maintenance associated with cranberry and blueberry farms.

      Several new populations of Pine Barren Gentian have recently been discovered in the Forked River Mountain area. With your continued support, we can preserve habitat for this and other endangered plant (and animal) species.

Speakers Available

Want to know more about the Forked River Mountains or our grass-roots initiative to permanently protect the area as open space. The Coalition offers a slide program to local groups and organizations. To arrange a presentation for your group call 609-971-1635.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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