Anyone who has spent much time in New Jersey knows and appreciates its varied natural splendor, from its beautiful beaches and expansive wetlands to the million-acre Pine Barrens in the state’s southern half. I’m particularly partial to the rolling farmland of the northwest. So to me it’s great that New Jersey has to date permanently protected something like 1,800 of its farms and 180,000 acres of its precious farmland. That’s impressive in a state that’s both small (No. 47 out of 50) and the country’s most densely populated (nearly 1,200 people per acre).
On a rain-soaked Friday in June, five of my (seven) siblings and I gathered in Trenton to add our farm to the list. Our mission that day was as delightful as the weather was dreary: to officially sell the development rights to our 180-acre Warren County farm to the New Jersey State Agricultural Development Commission. Our land will never be developed for any non-agricultural purpose.
My grandparents bought this land in 1939, and it has been actively farmed since. Our goal is that it will be farmed forever. Until 2005 it was a conventional corn-and-hay dairy operation; now it is home to Howling Wolf Farm, a full-food organic CSA run by Matt Pearson and Tara Bower. Matt and Tara provide their members—all of them local—with everything from a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables to eggs and cheese to a range of pasture-raised meats.
If 180 acres doesn’t seem like a lot, even in our small state, consider that two adjacent farms are also preserved and that on the other side of our property is a township park with a sizable lake that attracts geese, ducks, and a lot of other birds and wildlife. Add it all up, and it’s 500 or so contiguous acres that will never sprout houses or stores. That’s good for the wildlife—80-some kinds of birds, 15 or so reptile and amphibian species, a variety of mammals—that lives there.