Acres of serenity

It’s hard to miss this one.

“If you think about it, it was farmland that never got developed,” said Rich Taylor, board member of the Friends of the Black Run Preserve. “One of the reasons that it was a cranberry farm is because cranberry farms like to be flooded and like to have a lot of water, so it’s tough to build on.”

The Black Run Preserve, a 1,300-acre parcel of preserved land in Evesham Township, is located between the Marlton Lakes and Kings Grant neighborhoods. It not only hosts a variety of threatened and endangered plants and animal species, but it also serves as a destination for hiking, biking, walking, running, fishing, birdwatching and more. The land was used for cranberry farming decades ago, with remnants of old bogs still around today. Earlier this year, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJ Conservation) entered into a binding contract of sale with the owners of approximately 835-acres in southwestern Evesham Township, known as the Black Run Headwaters Property.

The Black Run Headwaters Property is located on the western edge of the state-designated New Jersey Pinelands area and the federally designated Pinelands National Reserve. The property has been a long-time conservation priority, due to its high ecological value based on research by Pinelands Commission scientists and other experts over the last several decades. Since the property contains the headwaters of Black Run, an important freshwater tributary that feeds into the Rancocas Creek, permanently protecting the land will also help protect the rest of the watershed downstream.

With a contract of sale now in place, NJ Conservation, in cooperation with the sellers, will move forward with the due diligence process that is typical of a conservation acquisition. The process is expected to take several months due to the size of the property. NJ Conservation must also secure the remaining funding needed before taking ownership of the property. A fundraising campaign led by NJ Conservation and a coalition of conservation partners will be announced soon, allowing members of the public to contribute to the property’s acquisition and future stewardship.

“At the Black Run Preserve, one comes not only to walk, but to listen to water moving through cedar and sand, to the quiet workings of a landscape still whole,” said Jane Dean, board president of the Friends of the Black Run Preserve. “Here, students and neighbors alike learn the language of the Pinelands, where clear streams and rooted forests reveal the relationships that sustain life. With the permanent preservation of the headwaters, we can trust that this place will remain as it should be – unbroken, instructive and alive, continuing to shape those who pass through it.”

The Friends of the Black Run Preserve, a volunteer organization formed in 2012, are the stewards of the land. They coordinate many programs and activities within the preserve, including guided hikes and stewardship projects like clean-ups and trail improvements, and their mission is to preserve and protect the natural beauty of the preserve for everyone to take advantage of. Taylor moved to Marlton 11 years ago, but when he lived in North Jersey, he was a New York-New Jersey Trail Conference volunteer, a member of the Long Distance Trails Crew and supervisor for 22-miles of the Appalachian Trail from the New York State line north to Route 17. He discovered the Black Run Preserve by chance and after having met a few people that were already involved with the Friends, he quickly came on board.

“You have forest trails; you have trails around the bogs that constantly change from season (and) from year to year in terms of water level… And then you go to some of the areas a little bit away from the bogs in the preserve, where you’re into a little bit of a different kind of forest,” Taylor said. “ … Take care of the property. Go and enjoy and leave and don’t destroy.”