LITTLE EGG HARBOR — The Ocean County Board of Commissioners has approved preserving a donated 1.61-acre lot in Little Egg Harbor Township, adding to about 95 acres of county-owned open space known as the Tuckerton Lake Tract, county officials said Friday.

The commissioners approved the acquisition in October on the recommendation of the county's Natural Lands Advisory Committee, according to the county. The vacant lot, on Giffordtown Lane, is being donated by its owner and will be preserved through the county's Natural Lands Trust Fund, which protects open space and farmland.

"The landowner has agreed to donate this property to the County," said Ocean County Commissioner Robert S. Arace, the board's liaison to the trust fund. Arace said both the Tuckerton Lake Tract and the new parcel sit within the Giffords Mill Branch Target Area, "a region long recognized for its ecological sensitivity."

County officials said the area's importance comes from tributary waterways that flow into Pohatcong Lake and the Barnegat Bay watershed, and that the Tuckerton Lake preserve contains some of the most undisturbed natural habitat in the Giffords Mill Branch region.

"Despite the legacy of past agricultural use, the Giffords Mill Branch region has maintained its natural integrity and beauty, and preserving additional acreage in the area helps ensure those qualities endure," Arace said.

The trust fund has been used to protect forests, wetlands, farmland, water resources and open space across the county, officials said.

On Nov. 3, Ocean County voters will decide whether to raise the trust fund's funding rate from 1.2 cents to 2.2 cents per $100 of total county equalized real property valuation. County officials said the money would support future acquisitions, maintenance and cleanup, and habitat protection.

This brief was drafted by AI from a public agency’s press release and published by The New Jersey Tide. Why we use AI for stories like this one.