By Mark S. Thomas, MD, Founder and Vice President

Mission Statement: The purpose of the Rancocas Conservancy is to preserve, protect, and enhance the ecological and cultural integrity of the Rancocas Creek watershed and its tributaries.

The Rancocas Conservancy was born on a warm, sunny spring day in early May, 1989. I had moved to Pemberton Borough the previous July, when I began my residency in Family Medicine at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly. I had become enamored of the Rancocas Creek, its intimate, human scale and leafy-green corridors. The sound of Spring peepers lured me into the valley that April. The vibrant leaves of skunk cabbage had begun to unfurl in the warming mud along the creek.

This particular day I wandered past the canoe rental in the borough and past the two dams, over which flowed tannin-brown waters. Following the creek-side path that matched the curve of the stream, I came to a subtle hillside rising to the south, where a grove of American beech, with their smooth gray skin and straight stature, filled the slope. Their nascent green leaves were were opening in elongated curls of light-filled translucency. Into this lush scene, directly in front of me, a wood thrush swooped in and perched above me, some fifteen feet away. It sang for ten minutes in the flute-like melody that has captivated me since childhood. The completeness and wondrous quality of the experience triggered an immediate, and permanent, inspiration to protect this place.

Over the next two years, I accumulated the names of individuals who might have an interest in exploring the opportunities to preserve land along the Rancocas Creek and its branches. The search took me to municipalities, county and state agencies, where I searched for individuals who might protect the natural beauty and resources of the Rancocas Creek watershed. The Burlington County Office of Resource Conservation proved to be the most helpful contact in directing me to individuals and organizations responsive to conservation efforts in the Rancocas. We held our first meeting at Smithville Park on June 19, 1989. We received our non-profit status as the Rancocas Watershed Conservation Foundation on September 12, 1991.

We began our very successful “Rancocas Journal” in Fall, 1994. In 1995 we were awarded grants from the Green Acres Department of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to acquire natural lands in the Rancocas Creek watershed. In 1998, we unveiled our first preserve, the Michael Stavola- Pemberton Beech Woods, the same location where the wood thrush sang to me years before. On these 46 acres, where 34 houses were to have been built, a beech woods, whose landscape provided a unique grove of beechwoods succession in a relatively undisturbed setting, was preserved in perpetuity. Subsequently the preserve has been enlarged to 61 acres, comprising most of the remaining open space in Pemberton Borough.

Over the intervening years, largely through volunteer effort, we have protected approximately 2,500 acres of land in the Rancocas Creek watershed, including upland headwaters, large intact acreage of swamp and wetlands, and corridors along the branches of the Rancocas Creek.

Presently, a newly re-invigorated board works diligently to curate our 12 preserves and has identified three stunning examples of Rancocas lands for possible protection. We strongly encourage you to help us in our efforts.

As the Rancocas Conservancy has as its project area the watershed of the Rancocas Creek, education and advocacy have gone hand-in-hand with land acquisition. Our presence at environmental fairs, presentations at allied non-profit meetings and municipal activities, and our assistance in local preservation efforts keeps us, and the watershed, in the public mind of Burlington County residents.

Good will, invitation to serve and volunteer, and education at every turn, characterizes the public presence of the Rancocas Conservancy. Please see our website, RancocasConservancy.org regularly, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram. However, getting out onto our preserves, through strolling, nature study or volunteering, is the best way to appreciate the treasured resources we curate.