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Winslow Township, Camden County
382 Acres
This property was once targeted for development of a large corporate
industrial plant. But, due to a change of corporate business plans
and that corporation’s generous land donation in 1997, this
382-acre property will forever provide habitat for area wildlife
and unique plants of the Pine Barrens.
Located along the Atlantic City Expressway and also having access
to freight train service, clearing began for development. Twenty-five
acres were stripped of trees and wetlands were severely altered
by ditches. But that development never came, and now nature has
made its own natural recovery effort, healing the scars of land
clearing bulldozers with young vigorous growing pitch pines and
acres of naturally seeded switchgrass and little bluestem grass.
The old clearing, with grass cover and other growth, is now valuable
habitat for bobwhite quail. Even areas that remain in bare sand
provide needed grit for quail and mourning dove. Fortunately,
much of the landscape remains undisturbed. A large block of pitch
pine lowland forest and red maple and sweetgum forests occurs
along the preserve’s namesake, Penny Pot Stream. The forest
provides good cover for brown thrashers and other songbirds. Wood
ducks often find a secret place to nest in a tree cavity on the
wooded edge of the small pond. Although stream ditching has altered
wetland patterns, some grassy wetland openings could still provide
suitable conditions for rare plants including the Pine Barrens
boneset.
Public Access and Uses:
The property has minimal road frontage for parking or public access.
From Albertson Road, just north of the Atlantic City Expressway,
a sand road crosses a railroad track to reach a sandy parking
area. The sand road provides a limited short walk before it reaches
a large water-filled ditch. No other public access points are
provided. Parking on the Atlantic City Expressway is not permitted.
The Trust allows registration
for deer hunting at this preserve.
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