Point Park Reduces Hours for Winter

TRENTON — According to a Nov. 7 Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) release, administrative offices at certain New Jersey parks and forests will be open on a shorter, five-day schedule during the fall and winter seasons, including the Cape May Point State Park.
“With crowds gone, fall and winter can be a time of quiet contemplation and communing with nature at our parks and forests,” DEP Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson said.
“The public will still be able to enjoy full, seven-day-a-week access to these outdoors opportunities at our parks and forests and the many wonderful programs they offer during the fall and winter. This new schedule affects only administrative offices, and is in line with the way many national and state parks operate during months of lower visitation.”
Offices at affected parks and forests will be open Monday through Friday until March 31, 2009, when they will resume seven-day schedules. Offices at nine parks and forests in various regions of the state will remain open seven days a week to provide administrative support to those that are closed on the weekends.
State-operated historic sites and nature centers will maintain normal hours of operation, and will continue to host programs and special events on weekends.
Although Cape May Lighthouse is a major attraction for many visitors to the area, the park’s constantly changing shoreline, dunes, freshwater coastal marsh and ponds, forested islands and varied uplands make it a well-known location for viewing the fall bird migration, according to the park’s Web page.
Located on the southern tip of New Jersey, Cape May Point State Park is a key site on the NJ Coastal Heritage Trail, with an environmental center that houses a classroom for interpretive programs and a museum on the area’s natural and historic features.
The county’s other state facilities, Belleplain State Forrest and Corson’s Inlet State Park, are not affected by the reduced winter office hours. They will remain open seven days a week.
Detailed information on the schedule changes is available at park and state forest offices or by going to www.njparksandforests.org.