Driving to Long Beach Island
most of us go through some part of the New Jersey Pine
Barrens. It’s easy not to give them a second thought – after all,
they’re just a bunch of pine trees, right?
Not so! The Pine Barrens are a unique and diverse area and
constitute the most extensive wilderness tract along the
middle-Atlantic seaboard. Its borders lie only 25 miles from
Philadelphia and 35 miles from New York City. It is generally
retreat of the Wisconsin Ice – within the past 12,000-10,000
years. Most of the Pine Barrens is located on upland sands
and the 2nd highest elevations of the Pine Barrens are found
in what is called the Forked River Mountains which are only
at Jakes Branch County Park. What you don’t see driving
by are the 200,000 acres of bog and swamp lands within the
Pine Barrens. Webs Mill Bog is near LBI and has a manmade
walkway for visitors to experience the bog up close.
All Pine Barrens streams arise within the pine barrens area
and originate as ground water discharge from slowly moving
surface waters of the Cohansey aquifer. An example is the
Toms River.
LivingLBI.com 32
It’s more than just
pine trees!
Article and photographs by Pat Trotter
www.twogiants.com
outside the region. Within the Pine Barrens you will
blueberries, inkberry, wintergreen, turkey beard, and
other types of plant life. The dominant tree is the pitch
pine, Pinus rigida. In no other region in North America
does the pitch pine cover such an extended area of
country as the dominant tree.
The Atlantic White Cedar also grows in this area with
one of the best examples found in nearby Wells Mills
County Park, some of which are over 100 years old.
The creeks and rivers, as well as the bogs and swamps,
contain tannins from the cedar and make the waters
appear dark, reddish-brown, tea-colored.
/LivingLBI.com
/www.twogiants.com