Jersey Jewel

Plexus Publishing captures the natural beauty of the Pine Barrens in a coffee-table volume with essays and photos.

By: Ilene Dube

Natural Wonders of the Jersey Pines and Shore (Plexus, $49.95), clockwise from top: A great blue heron, lily pads flourish in the iron-rich water, mound of bog iron at Batsto Mansion and a diamond back terrapin.

   It’s a good thing the soil in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens is
sandy and not suitable for farming. Had it been rich in humus, the Pines might
not have remained a vast unspoiled stretch of land. At 1.1 million acres, it
occupies 22 percent of New Jersey’s land area, according to the New Jersey Pinelands
Commission Web site.
   Summer is the perfect time to explore the protected land,
teeming with wildlife. Armchair travelers may prefer to peruse Natural Wonders
of the Jersey Pines and Shore by Robert A. Peterson (Plexus, $49.95). The
coffee table book is filled with sumptuous color photographs by Michael Hogan
and Steve Greer.
   Sadly, Mr. Peterson, an educator, journalist, historian and
avid sportsman, passed away in 2003 at age 47. Much of the material in the 57
chapters on flora, fauna, forces of nature and geological formations was written
for his regular column in The Egg Harbor News. There are sections on
sea creatures, fowl, trees, sand, fire, mushrooms, honeybees and more.
   In the introduction, Mr. Peterson recounts a story about a
successful Persian farmer who, with more land than most men, set out in search
of diamonds. He became so obsessed that he sold all his land to fund his search,
eventually leaving his family. When it all came to naught, he gave up and jumped
into the sea. Years later, one of the most plentiful sources of diamonds in
the world was discovered on the land the farmer had sold.
   Mr. Peterson compares the people of New Jersey, New York and
Philadelphia to the Persian farmer: Always in search of beauty, they head to
the American West, to New England or Florida, when in their own backyard are
"acres of diamonds," the natural wonders of the Jersey Pines. It is the largest
undeveloped tract of land between Maine and Florida, Mr. Peterson writes. (The
Pinelands Commission describes it as "the largest body of open space on the
Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston… it is underlain by aquifers
containing 17 trillion gallons of some of the purest water in the land.")
   South Jersey’s orchids lure scientists from as far away as
Japan, says Mr. Peterson, and its pygmy pines continue to puzzle biologists.
   Fanciers of fungus will find the Pine Barrens, with its pine
needles and cones, organic matter and moist growing conditions ideal for mushrooms.
But beware the poisonous varieties, such as the deadly destroying angel, Amanita
bisporigera. Those who hunt edible wild mushrooms in the Pines are called pot
hunters, and are rewarded with Russula variata in September, and the honey mushroom
that grows on oak stumps. Mr. Peterson warns against eating any mushroom without
proper identification by a trained mycologist. "The wild mushroom is a reminder
that balancing Pine Barrens preservation with development, like life itself,
is best not left to chance, but to wise planning and decision making," he writes.
   While you’re bending down to look at the mushrooms, watch
out for the carnivorous plants. "There is no record of man-eating plants in
the Pine Barrens, but there are plenty of plants that eat insects," writes Mr.
Peterson. These include bladderworts, pitcher plants and sundew, but unfortunately
they do no eat mosquitoes.
   One insect that plays an especially important role in the
Pines is the honeybee. It pollinates two of South Jersey’s most important crops,
cranberries and blueberries. Honeybees are not native but were brought from
Europe in the 17th century. In 1974, the honeybee was named the official insect
of New Jersey.
   Andrew Rider, founder of Rider University, is credited for
bringing cranberries from the bogs of the Pines to the Thanksgiving table. He
resigned from his job as president of the college to promote cranberries, which
he grew on 500 acres in Hammonton. In those days, trends were not started in
California, but in England, where cranberries were snubbed. Mr. Rider published
a cranberry cookbook and distributed it to English restaurants. Eventually the
berry found its way to Queen Victoria’s dinner table, and soon Mr. Rider was
exporting 5,000 barrels of cranberries a year.
   In the Princeton area, orchids proliferate at Home Depot,
but the terrestral varieties grow wild in the Pines. These include the lady’s
slipper, used medicinally by the Lenape Indians; the grass pink orchid, which
deceives bees into thinking a feast awaits; the white fringed orchid, with showy
flowers in July; the dragon’s mouth; and about 27 others. All are endangered,
and there are hefty fines for anyone trying to dig them up.
   John McPhee’s 1967 classic, The Pine Barrens, still remains
the standard, but the photographs in Natural Wonders, of wild turkeys,
red fox, lichen, tides, butterflies, great blue herons and the changing seasons,
are tantalizing enough to lure a reader into making an excursion to the unspoiled
terrain.
Natural Wonders of the Jersey Pines and Shore is available in bookstores
and on the Web at www.plexuspublishing.com