256 Acres Preserved Around Carrier Clinic, Somerset County

I used to live near here, and love when I hear about their continued efforts to preserve land. Route 601, where Carrier Clinic is located, is loaded with open space. It's a beautiful road, unlike parts of nearby Route 206, which has been bitch-slapped by short-sighted, "profits are all that matter" developers before.

This post comes courtesy Patch.com.

County to Preserve Land Around Carrier Clinic

Somerset County will preserve 256 acres of wooded open space surrounding Carrier Clinic in the Belle Mead section of the township.

The county came to the planning board on Thursday evening to ask for a minor subdivision of the parcel that lies in both Hillsborough and Montgomery.

According to William Robertson, deputy Somerset County counsel, Carrier Clinic owns 367 acres, 99 of which are in Hillsborough. The county will be acquiring 256 acres.

Of the 99 acres in Hillsborough, Carrier Clinic will retain nearly 18 acres to be used for a solar installation. That project has already been approved by the Board of Adjustment.

Tom Bocino, of the Somerset County Engineering Department, said the open space will become part of the county’s Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Bocino said the space will be used for passive recreation and the only possible construction in the future would be a trail system.

“We do not propose any improvements,” he said.

He said that a vacant house in the northwestern part of the property would be demolished. Bocino also said a part of the property is also farmed and that will continue until the county completes an assessment.

One of the largest private, not-for-profit behavioral healthcare facilities in New Jersey, Carrier Clinic, specializes in psychiatric and substance abuse addiction treatment on the inpatient and residential levels.

Without discussion, the board unanimously approved the subdivision.

Robertson said the county will also be seeking approval from Montgomery.

Almost 200 Acres Preserved in Morris County

This one is a two-fer. I was already planning on posting the 129-acre announcements, but this article, from the Daily Record, also notes a piece of preserved land on the Mendham-Chester border. Whoo hoo!

Two large swaths of land were preserved this week in deals that will add nearly 200 acres to public lands. Both deals — 129 acres bordering Rockaway and Boonton townships, and 46-acres bordering Chester and Mendham townships — were brokered by the Trust for Public Land and announced Wednesday.

More than 129 acres south of Decker Road in Rockaway and Boonton townships were preserved and will be managed by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. The purchase extends the Johanson tract, a 62-acre property managed by the nonprofit land group that is adjacent to Wildcat Ridge Management Area.

About $1.2 million of the $1.74 million purchase price came from the Morris County open space trust fund.

The property supports critical water resources, including a tributary of the Stony Brook, a Rockaway River watershed stream and Dixon’s Pond, according to a prepared statement that said the pond will not be open to the public, but future trails will offer hikers lake views.

Michele S. Byers, executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, called it a “Highlands gem.”

“It contains valuable wetlands, as well as rocky outcrops with wonderful views of the water,” Byers said. “We are pleased to work with The Trust for Public Land, Morris County, and the state to permanently protect this beautiful wooded property and expand the area’s network of preserved lands.”

In Chester and Mendham townships, the 46-acre Shale Valley property consists of mature upland woodlands and wetlands that connect the Morris County-owned Mount Paul County Park and the Mendham Township-owned Burnett Brook Natural Area.

Funding for the $1,697,500 purchase was provided by a $1,188,250 grant from the Morris County Preservation Trust Fund.

The property was transferred to the Schiff Natural Lands Trust, which owns the nearby 423-acre Schiff Nature Preserve. The organization intends to conduct a large-scale ecological restoration on a portion of the property that was mined for shale. It is envisioned that the restoration would convert 9 acres of the former mining area into a functioning, emergent wetland and upland habitat.

“Preserving and restoring this critical link in the Schiff to Mount Paul Greenway is a key goal identified in our new strategic plan, as well as a natural extension of our community-based conservation efforts in this area over the last decade,” said Marissa Hartzler, executive director of the Schiff Natural Lands Trust.

An acre whore's favorite words: preserves more land.

This post comes courtesy Courier-Post Online.com

Burlington County preserves more land

MOUNT HOLLY — The county that leads in farmland preservation in New Jersey now has preserved more than 25,000 acres of farmland with its latest purchases.

Burlington County added eight more farms to its preservation list last week and also sold five preserved farms to owners who must keep the land in agriculture.

The county approved payment of $4 million for 701 acres on eight farms, including three in Pemberton Township and several within the Pinelands.

Approval for the settlements came at a recent meeting of the county board of freeholders.

Mary Pat Robbie, director of the county department of resource conservation, said this boosts the total number of acres beyond 25,000 throughout the county– largest county in square miles in the state.

“What we are seeing with preserved farms and those we have sold at auction is that farmers are continuing to invest in land and agriculture,” she said.

She said farmers are using some of their preservation payments from the county to reinvest in more agricultural land.

“That is exactly what we want to see,” she said.

The county pays the potential development value to preserve farms using one of two methods — purchasing a property easement banning all non-agricultural development or buying a farm outright and then either using it for open space or preservation programs, or selling it at auction.

The eight newly bought farms are Ditullio in Mansfield; Black Dog, Bush and Stevenson, all in Pemberton Township; Kucowksi in North Hanover; Alloway Family LP in Shamong; and Haines in Tabernacle.

Last week the county also approved a February auction sale that netted $2.9 million for five farms totaling 731 acres and drew a crowd of 150 people.

Three of those farms are in Springfield. The others are in Hainesport and Shamong. Four are crop farms and Aristone, a horse farm in Shamong, is the first farm ever preserved in that municipality.

Freeholder-Director Bruce Garganio said income from this auction will be used to preserve other farms within the county.

The county finances its purchases with a dedicated property tax of four cents for every $100 of assessed private land in the county.

This tax for farmland, open space and historic preservation was approved by voters and raises millions of tax dollars every year.

Most purchases involve a state matching grant and, in some cases, a lesser match from a municipality.

“By transferring this farmland back into private ownership, the county is helping to ensure the long-term viability of the agricultural industry within it while minimizing the county’s management expense and taxpayer cost,” Garganio said.

Gloucester County farmer Peter Gasko of Monroe paid the most for the auctioned farms— $745,000 for the Ziegler/Walder farm on Juliustown Road in Springfield.

Crop farmer Christopher Probasco of Chesterfield, who already farms many acres in Burlington County, bought the 126-acre BF&W Farm that he already was leasing from the county.

Probasco said he likes to buy farms that need work but have good soil like this one because it can be purchased for less than the cost of a manicured farm.

“We also farm right next to it, so for efficiency reasons it also makes sense and we’ll install some hedgerows and some drainage,” he said.