FIRST - Designated National Reserve in US
Posted by: 
94RedRover
N 39° 49.102 W 074° 32.130
18S E 539754 N 4407701
The New Jersey Pine Barrens, some 1.1 million acres of unique ecology and beauty, is a part of New Jersey that offers incredible historical, geological and anthropological adventures. It is the first area designated as a National Reserve.
Waymark Code: WM56W7
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 11/20/2008
Views: 3
The European settlers refered to the area as "barrens" because of the sandy, acidic soils that would not cultivate crops. But, the area offered other resources, such as bog iron, clay, lumber, sphagnum moss and game. This desolate area played a pivitol role in our country's industrial and national advancement through the centuries.
The land that comprises the New Jersey Pine Barrens, is a heavily forested area of Southern Jersey's Coastal Flood Plain. There is evidence that the area was once covered in shallow water, not just in the "sugar sand" that has been left by the receeding water, but also in it's unique plant life, including orchids and carnivorous plants.
Another unique feature of the New Jersey Pine Barrens is the existence of rare pygmy Pitch Pines. These miniature pine trees, growing to under six feet in height, extend for miles. This species is found in only two other places ont he planet, but not in the abundance as here in New Jersey.
Here, the trees and other plant species depend on fire to reproduce and to prevent invasion by woody species. Without frequent fires, this wooded area would turn from from a savanna to closed-canopy forest. The Native Americans of the area used fire to maintain range-like areas in the forest for hunting.
The Pine Barrens contains some of the purest water in the United States, and feeds the 17 trillion gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer.
The New Jersey Pine Barrens was designated the Pinelands National Reserve (the nation's first National Reserve) in 1978, and it was designated a United Nations International Biosphere Reserve in 1983.
I've chosen the small town of Chatsworth, New Jersey as the waymark coordinate, as this little, historic town is the heart of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Type of documentation of superlative status: Website
Location of coordinates: Chatsworth, NJ - in the heart of pinelands
Web Site: [Web Link]
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