Warren County will join with the New Jersey Green Acres program and New Jersey Audubon Society to preserve a large farm in Mansfield Township, keeping some 340 acres green and open.
“This is really a plus for the region,” Freeholder Director Richard D. Gardner said after the freeholder board on January 28, 2009 voted unanimously on a resolution approving the purchase of the Wattles farm located between Route 57 and the Musconetcong River.
“Given the size of the tract, the potential number of homes that could be built there and the overall impact of the traffic that could result would have been a very difficult thing to deal with,” Gardner remarked.
The county Land Preservation Department has been working with property owner Gordon Wattles, the state and the Audubon Society for about four years to make an agreement for preserving the land. The entire farm will be purchased and Green Acres will take approximately 95 acres fronting on the Musconetcong River – in the shadow of Point Mountain in Hunterdon County – while the Audubon Society will get 50 acres of meadow and woodlands and Warren County will take title to the remaining 195 acres of productive farmland fronting on State Highway Route 57 and Asbury-Anderson Road.
Warren County’s cost share is approximately $3.675 million, which will come from an open space bond issue and the county’s open space, farmland and historic preservation trust fund, financed by a special tax approved by voters. The county plans to divide its portion of the property into two farms, move to permanently retire the development rights on those farms and enroll them in the state Farmland Preservation Program, and auction them, putting the land back on the tax rolls. Some of the county’s costs would be recouped by using the state preservation program.
Gardner praised county Land Preservation Administrator Bob Resker and the Green Acres and Audubon Society officials involved in the lengthy process, adding, “Most of all, Warren County wishes to thank Mr. Gordon Wattles. Without his dedication in the pursuit of conservation and preservation of our natural resources, this great collaborative effort would not have occurred.” |
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Freeholder Everett A. Chamberlain called the deal “a great cooperative effort” between a private nonprofit, the state and the county Land Preservation Department. “Our director, Bob Resker, deserves an awful lot of credit,” he added.
“It’s a great purchase,’’ Chamberlain said, noting, “It gives access to the Musconetcong to the public.”
“It is a beautiful spot,” Freeholder John DiMaio noted, while Gardner said the farmland has “extremely high quality soil.”
Resker said the county has a good working relationship with Green Acres. He also noted the portion of the property the Audubon Society is getting includes “a magnificent old stone home,” adding he expects the organization to have a strong presence in Warren County utilizing the property.
Beth Styler Barry, executive director of the Musconetcong Watershed Association, attended the meeting and praised the freeholders and Resker for their efforts to preserve the crucial piece of land along the river.
“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, that was the most critical property” the organization wanted to see preserved, she said, noting any development there posed a serious threat to the river.
According to Barry, some 760 homes had been proposed for the property, and a later plan downsized it to a still significant 540 homes.
“Preservation of this property removes a great threat to the health of the Musconetcong River,” she said in a statement the watershed association later released. In the statement she thanked Resker for “his continued recognition that the preservation of land along the river needs to be given the highest priority when it becomes available for preservation.”
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