LAND TRUST - Land Trust Projects

Highlands Greenway

The part of Highlands Greenway are the rugged, heavily wooded Tory Tract overlooking Wanaque Reservoir in Ringwood, New Jersey, the Bat Cave, a unique refuge for an estimated 40,000 bats, including the endangered Indiana bat, in New Jersey's Rockaway Township. Russia Brook Sanctuary is a two-stage acquisition project totaling 380 acres located in Morris and Sussex Counties. The sanctuary, adjacent to Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area, preserves a headwaters stream and wetland, which flows into the Rockaway River. 

Recently the PRC purchased 6.8 acres land on Pine Island located at the southern end of Greenwood Lake in West Milford.

A big addition to Highlands Greenway Land Trust's inventory is represented by Federal Hill (read description below).

                                                                                                         Tory Tract in Ringwood, New Jersey

    Federal Hill

Passaic River Coalition Land Trust has finalized its purchase of the forested mountainside that will be the centerpiece of a future park in Bloomingdale, New Jersey. The 35-acre parcel, known as the Higgins-Peragallo Tract, covers a northern portion of Federal Hill lying just west of Interstate 287 and is prominently visible from the highway. The tract was previously slated by its owners for housing development.

Matt Polsky, director of the Land Trust, points out that the Higgins-Peragallo purchase benefits the watershed by preserving a historic area of dramatic natural beauty and at the same time forestalls housing and road construction on a steep hillside. Such construction would have predictably worsened downstream flooding in areas such as Pequannock and Pompton Lakes.

New Jersey's Green Acres program, the Passaic County Open Space Trust Fund and the Borough of Bloomingdale contributed to the acquisition. 

    Federal Hill Greenway

Pequannock Greenway

The purpose of the project is to create open space along the Pequannock River. So far, we were able to acquire the funding for "Apshawa Cluster", "Butler Raceway" and "Butler Raceway Extension". In future we would like to purchase "Weber Tract", "Van Ness" and build canoe trails.

Upper Passaic Project

The intention of Upper Passaic Project is to "fill the gaps" between already existing greenway areas in Morris, Union and Somerset Counties. Von Graff and Parlapiano are first two acquisitions. We believe we could extend the greenway in Old Barn, Williams and Farber-Levin properties.

                                                                                            Old Barn

Lower Passaic

Lower Passaic is the source of heavy industrialism that has a big effect on water quality. The Land Trust is working to rescue riverbank land from decay and realize the vision of a new 2-mile long continuous urban greenway park on the east bank of the lower Passaic River in Lyndhurst, Rutherford and North Arlington, New Jersey. The projected greenway park will include walking and biking paths and access to the river for rowing and boating.

So far we were able to purchase the following acquisitions: Garfield, Lyndhurst Riverfront Park, Lyndhurst Greenway and Block 791 in Paterson. In the future we are looking forward to expanding our open space by purchasing Elmwood Boat House and assist the municipalities with acquiring other land parcels on Lower Passaic Riverbank.

Lower Passaic