Pinelands Panel Awards Grant to Nature Conservancy

BELLEPLAIN — The New Jersey Pinelands Commission’s Permanent Land Protection Committee has dedicated more than $1.9 million to preserve 1,612 acres on 13 properties in Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May and Ocean counties in the Pinelands.
In this county, The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit group that protects open space, was allocated up to $57,750 for a 25-acre project in a forest area of Dennis Township.
Nature Conservancy spokesperson Khara McKeen told the Herald that the grant would cover one-third of the purchase price for the property.
According to a release, the committee approved the expenditure from the Pinelands Conservation Fund to preserve the land in partnership with local governments and nonprofit organizations during its meeting on Jan. 29.
“Permanent land protection has been a critical part of our efforts to protect the Pinelands’ unique resources for the past 30 years, and it will continue to be vital as we enter a new decade of Pinelands protection,” said John C. Stokes, Executive Director of the Pinelands Commission.
“These properties contain outstanding natural resources such as habitat for rare Pinelands plants and animals, and they connect large, adjacent properties that also have been permanently preserved.”
The funding is contingent upon the execution of a purchase contract, supported by a certification of fair market value, by May 31, 2010, the release stated.
McKeen said the local property was in the Belleplain area, but could not be more specific until the purchase contracts were signed.
The Pinelands Conservation Fund was created in 2004 as part of an agreement with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to permit the construction and upgrade of an electric transmission line through eastern portions of the Pinelands.
Under the agreement, the special fund was established to further the Pinelands protection program and ensure a greater level of protection of the unique resources of the Pinelands Area. The utility that built the transmission lines, Atlantic City Electric (formerly Conectiv), provided $13 million to establish the Fund.