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Jersey’s Green Acres: Due West
By Amy Hatfield
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In one of my college literature classes, “Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings,” was a reading requirement. I actually read the whole book. It made Franklin seem like a regular guy, making candles, getting bored in church and writing big-picture to-do list that shaped his life and gave some insight into his ambitions. It made me realize, if you have a blank canvas to work with—which was essentially what America was at the time—then ideas come readily because they come out of need.
But then Franklin’s book started talking about Bethlehem, and I didn’t understand how we went from Philly to the well-known Biblical town. It didn’t fit with his story and Franklin was doing fairly pedestrian things in Bethlehem as I remember. There was no mention of the North Star or a manger and, anyway, the timing was all wrong. Later, some kid from class told me that Franklin was talking about Bethlehem, Penn. Who knew?
So then, about 10 years down the road, I was sitting in Joe’s Steak Shop, a great little joint in Phillipsburg, N.J., near the Pennsylvania state line, and I realized I was just a few short miles from, of all places, Bethlehem, Penn. So there I was. I’d come full circle with Benjamin Franklin’s Bethlehem.
But what’s the significance of Jersey?
Well, first, I wouldn’t have found my way to Bethlehem if not for a work trip to Jersey. And second, in an outdoor-driven career that revolves around hunting and conservation, it’s ironic that New Jersey—one of the country’s most metropolitan and densely populated states—keeps intersecting my path. Isn’t it dirt gone wrong, paved over by the industrious masses? Maybe. Make your thoughtful arguments, but there are nuggets of greatness in Jersey, The Garden State, if you look carefully.
Here are profiles of two areas, both on Jersey’s western border, sitting snug along the Delaware River. Profiles are broken down into three informative parts: In Sussex County, read a bit about the hunting culture and public hunting destinations. And then there’s the third, a visit south of Sussex in Phillipsburg where students are exploring bowhunting in Ag class.
Jersey’s Counterculture
For all of Jersey that’s built around and in reaction to New York City, there is a little place called Branchville in Sussex County that is built around and in reaction to hunters and the prime hunting havens in the area. And while hunters don’t bring the dollars to Branchville like New York brings to sprawling New Jersey, this group brings history and tradition. It’s fitting for a place called Sussex, a name dropped often in historical accounts of the Revolutionary War, featuring a Continental Army populated by teenage farm boys who hunted.
Branchville, a place of farmland and farm boys still, was once dominated by dairies and milk cows. Now, the land supports horse farms and tomato fields. It’s not uncommon to see roadside stands and locals, their backs bent, gravitating to pick-your-own farms, a big draw in the muggy months of summer.
Also in Branchville is a log cabin, known as Gyps Tavern, that serves as a gathering spot for hunters fresh from the woods. Along the bar, a collection of bed heads exposed and a row of camo caps resting on bended knees. Muddy boots are propped on bar stools and heavy pint mugs are clasped in satisfied hands. The tavern was established in 1941. The original owner, George Rosilli, served beers to the tavern’s most well-known customer to date: Babe Ruth. A photo of the Great Bambino standing proudly with a wild turkey he’d bagged at Walkpack, a nearby wildlife management area, still hangs on one of the log cabins walls.
Within 50 yards of Gyps Tavern, is Stokes Sport Shop, which also serves as a wild turkey check station. So in the spring, hunters usually check their tom at Stokes and then walk over to Gyps for a beer. Some participate in an annual contest based on the weight of bagged birds. It’s a contest Bob and Linda Edwards, current owners of Gyps, coordinate each year.
Habitat Fuels Hunting Habits
A hunting culture doesn’t ignite and sustain itself without proper property—the kind that’s dodged development, is open and available. You might argue every century has its war with progress. Native Americans fought the progress of the white man, the white man (most notably Jessie James) fought the progress of industrialization and the railroad. Every generation fights something, it seems, that threatens to accessorize the earth in a materialistic way. In Jersey, there’s a movement that’s making great progress in the areas of successful land management. So much so, the state has become a model for other states to observe and follow.
As reported by the Trust for Public Land, a group that conserves land for people to enjoy, New Jersey has developed model land conservation programs with unprecedented public support, this in spite of runaway growth and overwhelming urban pressures. These efforts began in 1961 when then-Governor Robert Meyner introduced New Jersey's Green Acres Open Space Land Conservation Program. Financed by an unbroken record of nine bond approvals totaling over $1.4 billion, the Green Acres program is touted as one of the most successful state land preservation programs in the country's history. To put this achievement in perspective, consider New Jersey’s growing population. The state has 1,134.5 persons per square mile, while the U.S. averages only 79.6.
Of New Jersey’s undeveloped land, the state offers hunters more than 500,000 acres of state-owned public open space providing diverse habitat from hardwood ridges and rolling hills to pine forests and salt marsh. This acreage includes more than 324,000 acres in 122 Wildlife Management Areas, specifically managed to enhance wildlife populations and provide for wildlife-oriented recreation.
Due west, back to Sussex County and the Delaware River, there’s a high density of New Jersey’s hunting ground. Here are profiles of several:
Walpack Wildlife Management Area
New Jersey’s wildlife management area initiative got its start with the purchase of a 387-acre tract known as Walpack Tract in Sussex County in 1932. Fish Flat Brook and walk high ground along Pompey Ridge, which overlooks the Delaware. But really, the Babe hunted here, so do any other details about the place matter?
Download a map of Walpack Here
Stokes State Park
Stokes State Park is known for Sunrise Mountain and the Appalachian Trail and Tillman Ravine with its rushing stream and steep cliffs. The 16,000-plus acre park is managed for fishing and hunting and is considered a popular park among hikers. Stokes offers ten cabins too, each furnished with a wood stove, two single beds, one double-deck bunk, a kitchen with cold and hot running water, refrigerator, electric stove and a half-bath with toilet and sink. Each accommodates four people.
Learn more about Stokes State Park and get cabin rates Here
Delaware Water Gap
Forty-thousand miles of river, 67,000 acres of valley.The Delaware cuts through a mountain ridge to form the famed "Water Gap." Exiting the park, the river will run 200 miles more to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at Wilmington, Del. Hunting is permitted in most parts of the recreation area. All applicable state and additional park-specific federal regulations must be followed. Trapping is not permitted.
Get detailed hunting information Here including a list of the Delaware’s river islands, most are prime hunting areas.
Random Factoid
If it occurred to you to fly into New York City, checkout Manhattan and then drive out to Sussex County, you’re looking at about 60 miles and a two-hour drive due to traffic.
Down the Delaware
Some miles down the Delaware in Phillipsburg, N.J., away from the solitude of Sussex County, two football players filed into their high school Ag and wildlife class. They were wearing their jerseys; it was Friday.
In the classroom, mounted game dressed the walls and an antique tractor was parked in the corner, the Future Farmers of America’s version of a med school cadaver. And then there was sausage lab. That’s what was coming up next Thursday according to the teacher, Greg Babbitt. Two big does were frozen solid in the classroom’s walk-in cooler and each undoubtedly factored in to the sausage lab lesson plan.
But, before next Thursday’s lab, all eyes were on Explore Bowhunting. It was a curriculum written by the Archery Trade Association, a group that supports businesses in the archery and bowhunting industry, featuring 22 lessons to spark an interest and passion for bowhunting.
“I just felt, while there are lots of kids programs in the outdoor and nature arena, many of them are so similar,” said Jay McAninch, Archery Trade Association CEO/President. “They go into the life history of the animal, but nowhere do they offer information for youngsters who want to get into hunting and learn what the animals do during hunting season. We think natural history and animal behavior can be taught through hunting, which is what Explore Bowhunting all about.”
Activities demonstrate, for instance, how learning to recognize animal tracks can help a bowhunter scout an area, determine where to set-up a tree stand or blind and help track an animal once it’s been shot. By learning animal calls, a bowhunter can draw animals in closer to ensure a responsible and safe shot.
“This curriculum gave me access to equipment and information that I could easily incorporate into my existing curriculum, and it gives students the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in areas that I have only touched on in the past,” said Babbitt.
New Jersey is one of only a handful of states where schools are piloting the Explore Bowhunting program. The curriculum serves as an important answer to the larger question conservation and hunting groups face: how to create enough awareness among those in the next generation so that conservation-minded citizens will continue a tradition of strong stewardship. And, surprisingly, one of New Jersey’s schools, snug along the Delaware, is doing it’s part to nurture answers.
So how ‘bout that? New Jersey. With it’s hunter’s tavern and ravines and mountain and bowhunting curriculum. So what about dirt gone wrong, paved over by the industrious masses? Make your thoughtful arguments, but there are nuggets of outdoor greatness in Jersey, The Garden State.
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