Spring, 2023

Warm greetings and best wishes for a season marked by renewed health and sanity. Join us in our continued exploration among the hills and valleys of Northwest New Jersey. We hope you keep the personality of the New Jersey Skylands near and dear when you need to freshen your horizon!

Here are some highlights from the region's calendar of events, along with some other suggestions for you and your family.

June 1 - 7

Alive and Well!

Bob Thompson
Feeling your oats? Here comes the sun, so take advantage of a schedule full of intriguing things for you and your family to enjoy. Or choose among dozens of natural attractions or outdoor activities suggested on our website. How can you complain?

Herbiversery

Well-Sweep Herb Farm's Spring Open House and Craft Market
Well-Sweep Herb Farm celebrates fifty-four years of herbal expertise with two full days of free lectures and presentations, tours of their spectacular gardens, live music, and a wide selection of curated craft vendors and food! The farm's largest selection of over 1,898 varieties of plants will be available. The Spring Open House and Craft Market takes place rain or shine this Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4 (Free admission and parking). Find out more on their website or on facebook, or call 908/852-5390. Well-Sweep is located between Hackettstown and Washington at 205 Mt. Bethel Rd. in Port Murray.

Lift Off

A festival featuring some flying fun with balloon launches and drone demonstrations, as well as local artisans and crafters at Warren County Community College June 2-4. (Hurricane Date: Thursday June 9 - 11)
A three-day high-flying fun festival, Friday, June 2 - Sunday, June 4, hosted by Warren County Community College, will feature hot air balloons launching in the evenings at 6:30 pm, and tethered rides as weather permits. The College will showcase their extensive drone program with demonstrations at the drone port. In addition there will be an Arts & Crafts Show, food trucks and musical entertainment each night. Get advance tickets here for Hot Air Balloons, Arts and Crafts! Warren County Community College is located at 475 Route 57, Washington, NJ.

Restless Natives

A native mountain laurel allee at The Cross Estate Gardens in Morristown.
Native plants (those that lived here before the colonists arrived) make outstanding gardens because they are strong growers, ornamental, require less maintenance than many exotics, and are particularly attractive to birds and butterflies. Some are even rumored to be deer-resistant!

Take a Float on the Wild Side!

Heading upstream through the Refuge from Bassetts Bridge, the Wallkill is a corridor of beauty.
The Wallkill River shares with great rivers like the Nile and the Rhine the peculiarity of northward flow. From out of Lake Mohawk, it spills over a dam then becomes a stream, bubbling and rushing fast, seeming most determined to be free.

Walking the Line

Cinder path on the Sussex Branch.
At one time, nearly every town in New Jersey was served by rail, despite the great effort they took to construct. Countless people's lives focused on the railroad, relying on it for industry, food, employment, and transportation. Nearly all the railroads have, of course, been abandoned; tracks removed, buildings demolished. The remaining "scars" in the earth are level paths of black cinder dirt or ballast stone connecting towns and villages, factories and mines. Because railroad grades traverse such varied terrain, a walk along them can be just as rewarding as hiking on conventional trails.

Old Man and the Pond

These days, even fishin’ from my heavy-duty, extra-large Cabela’s chair is limited to lakes where I have a smooth – and short – path from my truck to the water’s edge. One thing will never change, however — I still love fishin’. Love it, love it, love it!

May 24 - 31

Trails Of Honor

Branchburg Veterans Memorial
For a little state, New Jersey has a big history, loads of towns, and lots of markers. There are somewhere around 1,200 historical markers in New Jersey, 500 of them in the Northwest Skylands region. No doubt you've notice a similar sign somewhere in your town, or along a local road, pointing out an interesting place, or a situation that once was. Many are monuments to war veterans from all eras and in all sizes. The Branchburg Veterans Memorial covers six wars at once: the American Revolution, Civil War, Word Wars I and II, the Korean War and Vietnam. In Flemington there is a marker that you can't see from the road in memory of "Vietnam War Dogs and Their Handlers." The Lambertville 8-12 Baseball League erected a memorial to PFC Charles L. Danberry who gave his life serving in the Marine Corp in Vietnam. A block or so away, the graves of Revolutionary War Lieutenant, George Coryell and "one of Gen. Washington's spies," Sam Holcombe, have been marked by the Hunterdon Cultural and Heritage Commission. And John Basilone stands larger than life on a little triangular intersection in the Borough of Raritan, his bronze statue sculpted by a boyhood friend and installed in 1948. Monuments like these decorate Northwest New Jersey in prominent and tucked away places. They are statues and plaques, fine-crafted or natural rock; some are pedestaled and others are so discreet as to appear part of the natural landscape. They all commemorate a part of our history, and often remind us of courageous men and women who have served our country. More...

This Memorial Day Weekend, take advantage of a calendar bursting with intriguing things for you and your family to enjoy. Or check our Day Trip Map for good ideas for recreational enhancement! The more aerobically inclined can choose among dozens of natural attractions or outdoor activities suggested on our website.

Green On Green

Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse, where they produce grass-fed beef and make artisanal cheeses and wood fired breads, is also a wonderful place for a late spring afternoon of music, dancing, and food. This Sunday, May 28, spend the late afternoon on the lawn of the farmhouse listening to Na'bodach - The Band, six fabulous musicians, plus electricity, who “nabodicize” traditional Celtic tunes and songs by incorporating modern rhythms, styles, and instrumentation. And there will be good food as well, with selections from our delicious farm to fork picnic menu with culinary delights made from our own farm products! Family friendly, BYOB. No dogs please. Food service starts at 3pm, music 4-6:30pm, $15 per person. Reservations are essential!
369 Stamets Rd, Milford (Hunterdon County), 908/864-7277.

Visit The Wild Woods This Summer!

The Flatbrook-Roy
Got the secret desire to be an explorer? Envy Indiana Jones? Ever yearn for the excitement of bushwhacking through uncharted lands? Adventure is yours, right here in New Jersey. Discover over 305,000 acres of little known forests, meadows, streams, and lakes collectively called Wildlife Management Areas - all public property, all owned by the people of New Jersey. This land is your land!

Border Crossing

Quick and tricky or quiet and easy; canoe, kayak, raft or tube; the floating experience in Northwest New Jersey comes in many flavors. Our precious rivers and streams deliver the goods! Spring is best, when the water is high and the traffic is low.
Ten thousand years ago receding glaciers sculpted the final product of their existence, leaving a series of streams that are both fascinating to ponder and paddle. The ice age created the heart of Sussex County's Vernon Township, a vast river bottomland that collects water from the surrounding mountains in a network of creeks and wetlands that make for a classic canoeing adventure on Wawayanda and Pochuck Creeks.

Edible Landscapes

Asian pears can be a beautiful and delicious addition to your backyard. (Gina Barkovitch)
Start your backyard menu with an orchard, organic style! Begin with a tree or two and learn as you go. Here are a few ideas...

May 18 - 25

Don't Tread On Me!

If you come upon a wood turtle, admire that groovy carapace and those sexy red legs; and move him out of the road if you have to. But you may not take him home! Wood turtles gained designation as a threatened species in 1979 because of habitat loss and their popularity in the illegal pet trade. There ten types of turtles in our neck of the woods; all quite fascinating, but let them be! Take a closer look...
For turtles and more, take advantage of a calendar budding with intriguing things for you and your family to enjoy. Or check our Day Trip Map for good ideas for recreational enhancement! The more aerobically inclined can choose among dozens of natural attractions or outdoor activities suggested on our website.

Count the Ways!

Landscape artist St. Clair Sullivan climbs the Red Dot trail to the top of Mt. Tammany every morning that weather permits. You can see more of his wonderful work at the Happy Trails exhibit opening May 26 at the Antoine Dutot Museum and Gallery, Delaware Water Gap, PA
Warren County offers a wide range of recreational opportunities for all kinds of people. Outdoor lovers enjoy rigorous hikes, abundant wildlife and superb scenery. For those who favor history, the river valleys become avenues marked by eight thousand years of human endeavor from the initial Lenni Lenape habitation, through the days of Colonial settlement, to the heady times of the Morris Canal and the great railroads. Others come to savor classic architecture and country hospitality in the small villages. All agree that Warren County’s rural nature is the key to its allure. Here are fifty ways to see Warren!

Hacklebarney Heaven

Hacklebarney State Park is 892 acres of glacial valley, with gorges carved by the Black River and two tributaries that feed it, the Rinehart and Trout Brooks. The dogs play and we talk in celebration of meeting in these Robin Hood woods. We stand on outcrops jutting over the river and gaze in awe at the grass, moss and seedlings living in the rocks brought here long ago. Walk on...

Hide and Seek

This spring, head for the woods on a special type of hunt. You won't find explicit directions, but if you log any appreciable trail time in the spring, you'll eventually come across a vernal pool. These distinctive wetlands are seasonal surprises, maybe something that you've never noticed before. The pools play hide and seek with woods walkers and the critters that inhabit them.

Harmonic Connections

Feng Shui or " The Art of Placement" is an ancient science that creates balanced harmonious environments. Your space does affect you! The proper design and arrangement of your physical space can bring in positive aspects of life, such as health, wealth, relationships, and overall well-being.
This June, you can access expert in-person training and become a Professional Certification Feng Shui Consultant by enrolling in the Conscious Intentional Feng Shui Program in Morristown (June 9 – 12). This training is especially suited for interior designers, real estate agents, architects, home staging professionals, contractors/builders and healers. Our Program of Studies includes color, clutter, artwork, furniture placement, floor plans, topography, home shapes and design, environmental psychology, and understanding the power of Chi, the Five Elements, and the Bagua. Be able to analyze and recommend powerful strategies for yourself and your clients.
Your master teachers, Renae Jensen and Mary Dennis have created a step by step, personalized, hands-on training which brings the ancient science of Feng Shui into the 21st Century. If you're ready to move your career forward and access this deep wisdom, then please check out more at www.FengShuiMorristown.com or contact RenaeJensen@gmail.com


May 11 - 18

Motherly Love!

Photo by Dan Bacon
New Jersey has more moms - of all kinds - per square mile than any other state in America. And the New Jersey Skylands can supply the perfect place to remind your mom how much you care on Mother's Day (Sunday, May 14). Take advantage of a calendar budding with intriguing things for you and your family to enjoy. Or check our Day Trip Map for good ideas for a Sunday drive! The more aerobically inclined can choose among dozens of natural attractions or outdoor activities suggested on our website.

Say it with flowers!

Experience the fragrance of over 200 varieties of lilacs at New Jersey Botanical Garden at Skylands in Ringwood State Park. Photo by Maja Britton.
You can bring your mom flowers, or take her to them! Northwestern New Jersey is blessed with extraordinary public gardens where visitors can experience every spring-blooming plant that will grow in the region. Friday, May 12 is National Public Gardens Day! Or take her wildflower hunting. It's the Greatest Show In Earth!

Adventurous Moms

Its particular geography makes Pyramid Mountain, in Boonton Township, home to an especially wide range of wildlife. The rugged terrain harbors an estimated four-hundred types of native plants and is crisscrossed by thirty types of mammals and one-hundred varieties of birds and myriad butterflies. Take a walk on the Pyramid!

Aerobically Inclined Moms

Photo by Dan Balogh
Drive up Route 23 North, and after passing countless big box stores, fast food chains and traffic lights, the landscape suddenly turns all green. And steep. This is wild West Milford, home to over 100 miles of marked hiking trails and more 1,000-foot summits than anyplace else in the Jersey Highlands. Bag some peaks with mom!

Maternal Instinct

Can't figure out what she'd like? Take her shopping and let her decide. Go some place nice where you can spend the day!
Take a trip to Gallery 23 in Blairstown where an inspired group of more than thirty-five selected local artists display their work on Main Street. Choose from hand-made treasures by potters, painters, fiber artists, jewelry artists, woodworkers, sculptors, photographers and more. This unique fine crafts and art showroom has gained an impressive reputation and is now a destination point for visitors from all over the country and abroad. 908/362-6865 (Open Tuesday - Saturday, 10-5, or always online.


Wilbur's Country Store is a perfect destination on any ride through the country, but especially on Mothers Day! Specializing in British foods and candy, and a wide selection of hard-to-find items, Wilbur's is the perfect source for a unique country gift. 735 Route 94 in Frelinghuysen, between Newton and Blairstown. Half the fun is getting there!
Pam Bacon and her steady ready crew get ready for Mothers Day #45 at Made To Order.
Forty-five years of Mothers Days have made Made To Order in Clinton is a sure bet for Moms who love a wide selection of jewelry, pottery, handmade leatherwork, art glass, and most anything else that you can imagine that might make her happy. Across from the famous Red Mill at 44 Main Street, Clinton. 908/735-4244.


May 4 - 11

Planet Jersey

swans
Unlikely as it may seem in this cold wet May, your garden can soon look like Shawna Bengivenni's, who grows flowers to protect her organically grown edibles in Wantage.
As May approaches its verdant peak, visions of vibrant flower beds, exotic garden designs and ripe juicy tomatoes run rampant, like weeds. Anyone can grow their own veggies in garden plots, raised beds, deck planters or any small space. It saves money , it's good for you and it's fun! Learn how to get the most out of your earth by examining Mary's best (and easiest) veggie garden primer. How does your garden grow? Or check these tips about growing your own Victory Garden!
When you're done planting, take advantage of a calendar budding with intriguing things for you and your family to enjoy. Or choose among dozens of natural attractions, outdoor activities or day trips and tours suggested on our website.

Spice of Life

Perennial garden and sundial at Well-Sweep
Discover the best ways to invigorate your garden, and your life, at Well-Sweep Herb Farm during this Saturday's Herb Day Festival, May 6. Enjoy a day of free informative lectures and presentations, tours of spectacular gardens, as well as a Craft Market featuring a wide selection of vendors and food. Featured speakers include founder of Herbalist & Alchemist, David Winston, as well as sereveral of his students and colleagues. A wide selection of the farm's 1,898 varieties of plants will be available. Event held rain or shine. Find out more on their website or on facebook, or call 908/852-5390. Well-Sweep is located between Hackettstown and Washington at 205 Mt. Bethel Rd. in Port Murray.

Yardology

Game camera captures image of a late night fox and skunk standoff.
Your backyard can be more than just an area you need to mow on Saturdays. Even on a small lot in a congested suburban area, you can grow enough food to put away dozens of quarts of delicious homegrown produce for consumption throughout the year. And it is fascinating to take note of the wide variety of wildlife with which you share your domain. You may even want to invite more!

Wings and a prayer

MacKenzie Hall releases a young male Big Brown Bat on his maiden flight.
Photo by Bob Thompson.
Bats are a fascinating group of animals. They've been flapping through the skies for more than fifty million years and are still the only mammals on Earth that can truly fly. But they are largely misunderstood, and have had very hard times of late. In a big way, the White-nose plague swung the door wide open to understanding and appreciating bats. Even grade school kids now know that bats are important insect-eaters. And bats save crops from corn earworm moths, potato beetles, cucumber beetles, even stink bugs, reducing the need for chemical pesticides. Those are rather good reasons to want bats around. Read more!

Tap our calendar for the best events for you and your family, or check our current stories. Pick from a multitude of daytrip itineraries and watch out for our virtual efforts to keep you informed. For the more aerobically inclined, the Outdoor Map shows the way to go, or choose among dozens of natural attractions or outdoor activities suggested on our website. Choose your own adventure!
Northwest New Jersey and destinations just beyond those borders, in Pennsylvania and New York, offer brilliant ways to get out and enjoy the pleasures of the season.

April 27 - May 4

The Merry Month!

Photo: Bob Thompson
The month of May invokes a certain emotional and sensual liberty, summoning waves of Spring Fever and the happy feeling that this most stirring season still lies largely before us. Time to hug a tree! And what better place to do your hugging than New Jersey’s Great Northwest Skylands? Choose among dozens of natural attractions, outdoor activities or day trips and tours suggested on our website. Give me fever!

Beauty, Peace and Power

The Black River is only about twelve miles long from beginning to end, but on the way it slices through the lives of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans. It hits them where they live, work and play. The river highlights the natural beauty of this corner of the state, and it flows through many of its major controversies about how land and water should be used. In its middle, as it roars through the hemlock groves of Hacklebarney State Park in Morris County, the Black River puts on a show of beauty, peace and power that can make a visitor forget where he is or why he came ­and cease to care.

Glowing Recommendation

The Essence of Fluorescence. A thirty-two-foot-long pageant of rocks at the Franklin Mineral Museum that includes many of the ninety-plus fluorescent minerals found here, comes alive under ultraviolet light.
Is it the bronze statue of the miner on the front lawn greeting the visitor or perhaps the full-size replica mine inside the building? Or could it be the lure of dinosaur footprints from New Jersey, the world's largest polished slabs of petrified wood, scorpions, dinosaur dung, and over 3000 specimens of local minerals that brings a steady stream of visitors to the Franklin Mineral Museum each year. The Museum, a non-profit educational institution which opened in 1965, is located at 32 Evans Street in Franklin (Sussex County).

Them Thar Hills

The Marshall House in Lambertville
California's overabundance of rain and snow this winter has resulted in both an exceptional wildflower bloom and a rejuvenated hunt for gold this spring. The man who started the original California Gold Rush was James Wilson Marshall, from Lambertville, NJ, who joined a wagon train in 1844 hoping to make a fresh start way out west. On January 24th, 1848, Marshall found some gold flakes near Sutter's Mill, and thus began the onslaught. As California was developing a state park in his honor, the Marshall family home in New Jersey was almost lost to demolition until it was rescued and restored by the Lambertville Historical Society. Amble down any Sunday afternoon to visit the Marshall House where you will learn of Lambertville's fascinating connection with them thar hills.

April 20 - 27

Above Us, Only Sky

Denville photographer Dave Blinder was seeking out hummingbirds at Fairview Farm Wildlife Refuge in Bedminster when he ran into this daisy.
An artist's eye reminds us that we face critical decisions every day in a fragile and vulnerable world. Perhaps if more of us spent time along the bank of a stream or in a field of wildflowers there would be less strife in the world. If only we could appreciate those simple gifts found just outside our door, we might be more willing to set aside our prejudices, less inclined to dredge up old grievances, make war. Judging from the lines of a poem penned by the great English romantic poet, William Wordsworth, he might have agreed with this sentiment.
To celebrate the planet from whence you sprouted, choose among dozens of natural attractions, outdoor activities or day trips and tours suggested on our website.

Earthly Delights

This photograph, entered by Dorota Jansiewicz in the annual Friends of Great Swamp Photo Contest depicts the Great Swamp’s magical landscape and the barred owl (also known as the swamp owl).
In 1959, galvanized community activists fought a proposed jetport that threatened the Great Swamp watershed. They raised enough money and support to donate thousands of acres to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge was born. Friends of Great Swamp was established in 1999 to provide assistance and support to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge through volunteer efforts and the funding of programs and projects to benefit wildlife and refuge visitors. To explore the Refuge Wilderness Area, trails begin in a multitude of locations. Or, begin at the Helen C. Fenske Visitor Center, named after one of the key community activists in the formation of the refuge, at 32 Pleasant Plains Road, Harding Township.

Seeds of Passion

In the Ramapo Mountains of Ringwood lies one of New Jersey’s most exquisite gems, the New Jersey State Botanical Garden. Its ninety-six cultivated acres are a secret to many — for others, a joyous discovery waiting to happen. Celebrate Earth Day Weekend with a visit, where you’ll find the beauty of nature and a soothing respite from this busy world, plus many special programs. Click or call 973/962-9534. 2 Morris Rd., Ringwood


Karamac Candy

You’re likely to be watched as you saunter down this old railbed.
A former railbed just north of the Delaware Water Gap provides a short but satisfying taste of days past in a beautiful setting. This short route is also perfect for those who are not inclined to hike longer, more difficult trails. A perfect spring warm up!

Legstretchers

At the Sourlands Mountain Preserve on East Mountain Road in Hillsborough, three trails begin at the same Trail Head across the grass from the parking lot. Grab a map in the kiosk and enter the woods for this pleasant hike in Somerset County. Take the four-mile Ridge Trail, designated with a rectangular blaze. The blazes here are carved wooden plaques in geometric shapes. Walks are always easy at the trailhead, and this one starts with a smooth gravel/dirt path under tall trees.

Clinton and the Red Mill

The Red Mill in spring. Photo by Dan Bacon.
Perhaps no symbol of western New Jersey is better known than the landmark Red Mill at Clinton. Located just below the confluence of Spruce Run and the South Branch of the Raritan, on the west end of Main Street, the mill and its surroundings have played host to a succession of industries and activities spawned by the region's remarkably rich agriculture. The best may be yet to come!

April 13 - 20

Happy Returns

You’re ready to submit your tax return to the government and clear your desk of all suspicious matters (correct?) Do not let Spring depreciate further; time to dig yourself back into Mother Earth! And what finer place to dig than the New Jersey’s Great Northwest Skylands? Take advantage of a calendar budding with intriguing things for you and your family to enjoy. Or use the Outdoor Directory for links to all sorts of hikes and outdoor fun!

High Liquidity

Monksville Reservoir. Photo by Dan Balough.
Drive an expertly crafted tour route, passing deep forests, meadows, historic hamlets, and the steep ridges and narrow valleys that characterize the northern Highlands on this Saturday’s (April 15) Spring Car Trek, sponsored by The New Jersey Highlands Coalition (NJHC). This year’s theme is Reservoirs of the Highlands, highlighting the source of clean drinking water for more than 6.2 million New Jersey residents, including the Splitrock, Monksville and Wanaque Reservoirs, among others. Meet at the Reservoir Tavern in Boonton at 10 am to receive your tour packet and turn-by-turn directions, before setting out in your personal vehicles to drive the 57-mile route to West Milford. Tickets are $35 per car, which covers the required 2-person per vehicle minimum—driver and navigator. There is a suggested donation of $10 for each additional passenger. Full details and online registration are available here.

Avian Audit

The whitethroated sparrow is often identified by its song mnemonic "old sam peabody". As summer progresses it becomes scarce locally as it makes its way north to breed.
The pursuit of birds in view appeals to lots of people for lots of reasons. Beyond the activity's obvious natural allure, "chasing" birds keeps watchers physically fit. Learning and identifying hundreds of species on the fly challenges the intellect and intensifies awareness. And for photographers and illustrators, there is no better subject. The concentration of ridges, valleys and wetlands in our area holds a fortune of interaction with the avian experience any time of year, but especially in spring...

Hidden Assets

Photo by Dan Bacon
Should you traverse any stretch of woods this spring, or even your backyard, alert eyes are usually rewarded. Bobcats thrive in habitats that merge open lands and forests in the most remote areas of northern New Jersey. Protected under the New Jersey Endangered Species Act, bobcats have settled in large areas of contiguous forest, where they introduced more than forty years ago. But fragmentation, caused by development and traffic, tend to constrain the local populations. Keep your eyes open and you might get lucky!

Net Income

Lewis Shad Fishery in Lambertville
The abundance of shad in spring reminds us again how fortunate we are to have in our midst the largest free flowing river in the East, one that has eagerly responded to conservation and clean up efforts. A restless army of shad enters the Delaware River proper in smaller divisions; schools clustered densely at the center of the run with advance brigades in front, followed by platoons hanging back at the rear. Their mission is simply to swim, females following males to nesting locations along a journey that, for some, can continue for more than three hundred miles.
The Bi-State Shad Fishing Contest runs April 20-23 and the annual Lambertville Shad Festival takes place on April 22-23. These strong salty soldiers offer some of the best battles on the river, especially on light tackle. Even devoted hunters of the celebrated trout have been known to yield to the hearty pursuit of shad during the first months of spring!

April 6 - 13

Tight Lines

Snow and ice have yielded to skunk cabbage that pokes through the mud along frigid and fast flowing streams. Perfect for opening day of trout season!
For many, the first day of trout fishing season is also Opening Day of Spring. Early April water is cold, high, and fast, but even the most severe conditions cannot deny dedicated fishers their place streamside early Saturday morning (April 8), when a fresh and feisty generation of stocked rainbow trout become fair game, each born and bred at the Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center which lies on a 5,000-acre state Wildlife Management Area between Route 46 and Pequest Road in Oxford.
This handy chart adapted from the NJDEP statewide Places To Fish guide will help find your way. Wherever you go,
don't forget your fishing license!

On Top of Old Morris

On the southeast side of the park, a broad and colorless swamp is eerily populated by a host of beaver cut and half fallen, decaying trees. (C. J. Kern)
Rising beyond the eastern shore of the Rockaway River, in Boonton Township, stands the Tourne, a modest mountain known for its rocky terrain and spectacular New York skyline views. Add a wildflower trail, a big-time bog, and miles of historic river valley, and you've got a prime spring adventure. More...

A Tribute to Primal Growth

Hutcheson Memorial Forest, a 65-acre tract of old growth forest in Franklin Township, Somerset County, is a conundrum in time and purpose. It lays in limbo between a no-management policy mandated to preserve the forest's character, and influences brought by suburbia that force change. The forest is one of only three patches of virgin woods remaining in New Jersey, and one of the last uncut, unburned White Oak--American Beech forests in the country. It is listed in the National Park Service Registry of Natural landmarks.

What's in a name?

It is not difficult to track down the Andover mine's location. But beware that the property is private and that trespassing is prohibited.
As far back as the early 1700s the name Andover was used by the Penns, owners of a large tract here granted to them by the Proprietors, to refer to the whole general area in Sussex County. Over the years, various sites have borne the Andover name, including local iron mines, forges, furnaces, factories and settlements with a connection with these early iron interests. More...

Grass to the Glass

With reforms in food policy we can reverse current trends that endanger the viability of small local dairy farming.
Many states have adopted regulations to allow consumer access to carefully produced fresh, unprocessed whole milk. New Jersey is the only state with a complete prohibition against distribution of “raw” milk, according to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Here's why choices matter...

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