Local News

Pinelands Preservation Alliance Partners with Pemberton to Expand Pemberton Lake Trail Network, Add Path for Rancocas Conservancy

Trail leading to Pemberton Lake.

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—The Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA) has partnered with Pemberton Township to expand the Pemberton Lake trail network, which will help to complement the municipality’s Trails and Bikes Master Plan (part of a two-pronged recreation plan that includes improvements to 17 of 19 municipal parks as well) unveiled earlier this year.

The two entities are also working together on another trail project at the Rancocas Conservancy, across from Sunbury Village.

According to Pemberton Business Administrator Daniel Hornickel, the PPA, upon hearing that Pemberton unveiled its master plan, approached the township in the springtime about expanding the trail network at Pemberton Lake, which abuts both Magnolia and Coleman’s Bridge roads, as well as the Pemberton Bypass (County Route 530).

The lake ownership is essentially split in half, with the township owning about 50 percent of it, and the state owning the rest, the township business administrator noted.

An existing trail at the site, Hornickel said, goes from a state-owned parking lot for the lake and runs “partway down” the northern shore of the lake, before coming back up along the bypass to the state parking lot, forming what is effectively a triangle.

The project, which is now underway, includes putting in a second trail that goes from another parking lot for the lake, along Magnolia Road and maintained by the township, and connecting it with the existing trail, “creating a (complete) trail around Lake Pemberton,” according to the township business administrator.

The township, Hornickel pointed out, has already utilized its new tree crew and brush cutting equipment to clear an approximately 1,700 linear foot path for the new trail, which he called both a “walking trail” and “nature trail.”

“On the back half of the lake, or on Coleman’s Bridge Road, there is a wide area for parking over there and the (existing) trail goes along that part of the lake, forming a triangle, which comes back along the bypass and goes to the woodlands where it started,” Hornickel said. “Our trail is going to go from the fishing dock along Magnolia Road, all the way around the lake to the point of that triangle (connecting the two trails).”

An ordinance passed during Pemberton Township Council’s Sept. 15 meeting gave the PPA a license “for the development and maintenance of a walking trail” at Pemberton Lake, which also provides the non-profit the authorization to an erect an entrance to the new trail.

According to Hornickel, the PPA will be “putting down the actual surface of the trail,” as well as installing trail markers, benches and some trash cans.

“We are so super excited about this,” Hornickel declared. “… And it is not a hard lift, and it is eventually going to be connected to the county trail that goes through the borough on out to Ocean County. This is going to fit neatly with what we are trying to do (establish a trail system connecting multiple Pemberton neighborhoods).

The PPA has, so far, demarcated the trail using yellow triangles on trees along the route, according to Hornickel.

The second trail project at the Rancocas Conservancy, which is in the 800 block of Pemberton-Browns Mills Road, is being spearheaded by the PPA and entails a path being cleared next to St. Mark Lutheran Church.

“What they (the PPA) are asking from us is to install a 130-foot path from the corner of Anderson and Pemberton-Browns Mills roads over to the Nesbit Center because then people who want to use the trail can park over in the parking lot at Nesbit,” Hornickel explained. “They will then reach out to the county to have a crossing put there. This is fantastic news! It is really complementing the Trails and Bikes Master Plan. It will have benefits for us in the future.”

As was previously explained during the unveiling of the master plan, the township hopes to solve complaints about getting around town, making it easier to do so, while also making it easier to “get to businesses,” and therefore “improve the economy in that aspect.” The hope is to “help everyone in the community feel better about life in general.”

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