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A drive down Water Street in Tewksbury, New Jersey, is a trip back in time. As you enter the hamlet of Mountainville � on the National Register of Historic Places � you're greeted by its well-preserved hotel, general store and homes from the 1800s.
“You’ll wonder what state and century you’re in,� said Chris Teasdale, secretary of the Tewksbury Land Trust.
Such is the mystical nature of the Highlands region, which spans parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut. It’s a timeless landscape of forests and farms, hills and meadows, history and culture.
Chris and Sarah Treanor bought a piece of that landscape to build a homestead, but in the end, they chose to part with the property to maintain its wild character and share it with others. Funding from the Highlands Conservation Act grant program, overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was key to making that happen after 10 years of trying.
A dream evolves
When you grow up in a place like Tewksbury, it tends to lure you back. That’s what Sarah Treanor discovered. Her childhood on a 60-acre farm in Tewksbury led her and husband Chris to settle there and eventually buy 60 acres of their own, with the intention of raising their family in a similar fashion.
Though they worked with architects and builders to plan their dream home, ground was never broken. They moved to the farm where Sarah grew up, and plans for their property went dormant.
Chris Treanor commuted between Tewksbury and Manhattan for years and appreciated returning to a bucolic setting each night.
“There are certain townships and areas in this part of New Jersey that historically have been beautiful farm country, but over time, through lack of proper planning and zoning, they look like someone took a farm field and sprinkled house seeds on it,� he said.
Meanwhile, people in the community were enjoying what the undeveloped parcel had to offer. They’d walk their dogs, hike and hunt, all with the Treanors� blessing.
“It was almost an unofficial park, an asset to the community,� Treanor said.
He and Sarah turned to the Tewksbury Land Trust � formed by local residents in 1993 to maintain the rural and agricultural character of Tewksbury � to explore possibilities for the land.
A rare find
The land trust was more than happy to help because the conservation value of the property was indisputable.
“Large plots of land are very hard to come by,� the trust’s Teasdale said. “Sixty acres is huge.�
Most of the land is wooded, offering high-quality habitat for migratory songbirds, such as thrushes and warblers, and other forest-dwellers. The Treanors enrolled the property in New Jersey’s Farmland Assessment Program and followed a woodland management plan to maintain a healthy forest.
Streams on the land feed into Rockaway Creek, which sustains a healthy brook trout population. The creek, in turn, connects to the Raritan River, drinking water source for nearly two million New Jerseyans. Surface water seeping into the ground fills an aquifer below, another important source of clean water.
Meadows and steep slope habitat round out the varied terrain, and there are views of 900-foot Hell Mountain, source of inspiration for the village of Mountainville.
A custom-made solution
Though the Treanors offered the property at less than appraised value, the million-dollar-plus price tag would be a heavy lift for any conservation organization. It took creativity and persistence to finalize the deal.
Beth Davisson, land protection specialist for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, represented the land trust throughout the decade-long process, finding funding, negotiating terms and tracking the legal details of the project.
“Beth was an operator in terms of looking at different funding sources and capitalizing on them,� Treanor said. “She worked it; she had the patience and stayed with it.�
When the New Jersey Highlands Council shared an opportunity for federal funding, Davisson took them up on the offer. An independent, regional planning agency under the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, the council guides land use and natural resource protection in the densely populated New Jersey Highlands region.
The Highlands program was created by Congress in 2004 and supports conservation across the 3.4 million-acre Highlands region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Program grants totaling $52 million � and matched by $79 million in non-federal funds � have protected more than 19,000 acres of land.
“Highlands funding goes to state agencies to support clean drinking water, healthy forests, thriving wildlife populations, productive agriculture and abundant recreational opportunities,� said Sharon Marino, acting director for the Service’s Northeast region. “This project is a prime example of the direct benefit the Highlands Conservation Act has on communities like Tewksbury.�
The Highlands Council provided $528,000 from the federal Highlands program to the Treanor project.
“Because of the value of land in New Jersey, projects need access to as many sources of money as possible,� said Executive Director Ben Spinelli. “Highlands Conservation Act funding gives us the capability to bring money to the table so we can act, as we did here, as the focal point for all the different partners and making the transaction occur.�
There was just one catch: Lands purchased with Highlands funds must be owned by a state, county or municipal government. Tewksbury Land Trust is none of these.
Preserved in perpetuity
Roughly half the funding for the purchase came as grants from the New Jersey Green Acres program to the Tewksbury Land Trust and Town of Tewksbury. Green Acres operates under the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and is funded by corporate business taxes.
The Green Acres program supports expanding parks, recreation and open-space opportunities for state residents and requires that land bought with its funds is protected through a deed of conservation restriction. A type of easement, the document limits future ownership to state, county or local government, or a land-preservation nonprofit.
To meet the requirements of the Highlands grant program, Davisson worked to apply the federal funds not to acquiring the property, but to protecting it with the deed of conservation restriction. Along with a Highlands Council Open Space program grant and the Green Acres funds, it was enough to complete the transaction.
“This was the first project I’ve completed this way, so it was complicated to figure it out,� Davisson said.
“What makes the difference is that the Highlands Conservation Act program exists solely to focus on the Highlands region,� Spinelli said. “To have a dedicated source of funding for preservation in the New Jersey Highlands is critical.�
Volunteers get the job done
The property became the Treanor Preserve, owned and managed by Tewksbury Land Trust, in 2023. With no paid staff, the land trust relies on dedicated volunteers who aren’t afraid of hard work. In the last 30-plus years, they've protected 500 acres, and they see potential in the new addition.
Through mowing and clearing brush, volunteers have connected existing gravel roads to create a multi-loop trail system open to hiking, horseback riding and cross-country skiing.
They’re also excited by the preserve’s proximity to their other land trust properties: 42-acre Jeffrey Preserve, with farm fields for walking, and 75-acre Olsen easement, which includes a hiking trail.
“We work on connectivity between preserves,� Teasdale said. “We have that potential with the Treanor Preserve via easements.�
Due to its agricultural past, the preserve hosts a plethora of invasive plants, or “a gallery of rogues,� as Teasdale calls them. These aggressive growers, including barberry, multiflora rose, garlic mustard and Phragmites, take advantage of disturbed land and crowd out native plants that are more beneficial to wildlife. Volunteers will work to remove them.
Remaining timeless
All agree that, hard as it was to achieve, this outcome was meant to be.
“In the end, maintaining the rural character of the area was important to us,� Treanor said.
“This was a high resource-value project,� Spinelli said. “The property has high groundwater-recharge values and wildlife habitat values, along with opportunities for passive recreation. Highlands money allows good projects like this to move forward.�
Preserving the timelessness of towns like Tewksbury is just one benefit of the Highlands Conservation Act.
