Pinelands National Reserve | |
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Location | New Jersey, U.S. |
Nearest city | Hammonton, NJ |
Coordinates | 39°45′N 74°45′W / 39.750°N 74.750°W |
Area | 1,164,025 acres (4,710.64 km2) 90,530 acres (36,640 ha) federal |
Established | November 10, 1978 |
Governing body | New Jersey Pinelands Commission |
Website | www |
Pinelands National Reserve is a national reserve that encompasses much of 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, Penn State Forest, and Double Trouble State Park, which provide public recreation facilities. Established by Congress in 1978, it is one of the nation's first national reserves, established along with Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve.[1]