Location New Jersey, U.S. Management National Park Service Established November 10, 1978 | Area 4,711 km² Nearest city Hammonton | |
 | ||
Governing body New Jersey Pinelands Commission Website New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve | ||
New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve (also known as Pinelands National Reserve) preserves the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
The Pinelands is a unique location of historic villages and berry farms amid the vast oak-pine forests (pine barrens), extensive wetlands, and diverse species of plants and animals of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion. It is protected by state and federal legislation through management by local, state, and federal governments and the private sector. The reserve contains Wharton State Forest, Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, Bass River State Forest, and Penn State Forest, which provide public recreation facilities. Established by Congress in 1978, it is the nation's first national reserve.
Administrative History
Authorized November 10, 1978, as the country's first National Reserve. Designated a biosphere reserve 1983. The reserve is managed by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, and is an affiliated area of the National Park Service.
The commission was created by a 1979 act of the New Jersey Legislature titled the Pinelands Act. Its mission statement indicates its role "is to preserve, protect, and enhance the natural and cultural resources of the Pinelands National Reserve, and to encourage compatible economic and other human activities consistent with that purpose." It consists of 15 commissioners, of whom seven are appointed by the Governor of New Jersey subject to the approval of the New Jersey Senate. Another seven commissioners are to be appointed, one each, by the seven New Jersey counties affected by the Pinelands Act: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean counties. The 15th and final commissioner is appointed by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Commission terms are three years in length and include no official compensation. The commission meets monthly, as do most of its sub-committees.
