(Note: Preserve, my foot! This is all about Control, of land, water and resources.)

August 14, 2003

By the New York Times

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The New Jersey Conservation Foundation announced yesterday that it had entered into formal agreement to buy 9,400 acres in the heart of the Pine Barrens, representing what it said would be the largest private land preservation deal ever undertaken by a nonprofit organization in the state.

The 14-square-mile property, which is the second-largest tract of privately owned land in New Jersey, consists primarily of wetlands and upland forests, with 1,500 acres of reservoirs, and close to 800 acres of cranberry bogs and 300 acres of blueberry fields. The tract, which includes parts of Bass River, Tabernacle and Woodland Townships, also connects four state forests and one wildlife management area.

The conservation group said it would name the property for Franklin E. Parker, the first chairman of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, from 1979 to 1988, and the first person to make a sizable donation toward buying the land. The land where the bogs are now will be named the DeMarco Cranberry Meadows Natural Area, after the DeMarco family, which has owned the land for more than 60 years.

"I'm very proud of my family's participation in this effort," said J. Garfield DeMarco, president of A. J. DeMarco Enterprises, which, until it stopped harvesting last year, was one of the country's largest cranberry growers. "We've kept this area beautiful and now we're going to help preserve it."

The land was originally offered to the conservation group last November for $12 million, a price that was estimated to be about half of its assessed value. A March 1 deadline to come up with the initial payment -- $5 million -- was extended by Mr. DeMarco to Sept. 1. The balance will be paid off over the next five years. The foundation's executive director, Michele Byers, said it was important to move quickly since about $3 million of the $5 million is in the form of annual pledges, in part contingent upon closing the deal this year.

"The fact that we were able to collect this amount of money in this short period in these difficult times speaks to the importance of the project," she said. "People recognize how important it is to be able to permanently preserve contiguous property to protect the water supply and wildlife management."

The foundation will begin inspecting and surveying the land, and, barring the discovery of any unexpected environmental hazards, plans to close on the sale in late November.

Under the deal, the DeMarco family maintains the right to harvest cranberries this year and the next two seasons, however Mr. DeMarco, who remains a shareholder in Ocean Spray Cranberries, said he is not exercising that option this year.

"The cranberry industry has inalterably changed," said Mr. DeMarco, who has battled with growers over the cooperative's future. "Cranberry farming is just not profitable, and I don't see it changing any time soon."

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