Penny Pot Preserve
Winslow Township, Camden County
NJNLT
  • Acres:
    382
  • Deer Hunting:
    Permitted
  • Map:
    Open PDF

Preserve Info

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.

bobwhite quail