Naturalist James Peck spoke at the February 22 Breakfast Kiwanis Meeting

Jim Peck, Executive Director of Cora Hartshorn Arboretum spoke about the arboretum and other nature areas in New Jersey. In photo above, Melanie Sze introduced Jim at the meeting.

Jim Peck authors the “Trail Mix” nature column published in the Home News Tribune, a central New Jersey newspaper. In six years he has visited 70 or 80 places and has written about beautiful places from High Point down to Cape May. He has given tours in the Pine Barrens. During the talk he showed beautiful pictures from Island Beach State Park, Cheesquake State Park, and other nice places.

Jim described the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum, which was started as a non-profit in 1961. There is a beautiful stone house and beautiful woodlands on the 16 acre property. It is a nice open-space park within Milburn, NJ. Most educational programs are for children, some of whom come from other cities like Newark and Union. They have an observational beehive and also have raised Monarch Butterflies. The Arboretum is open dawn to dusk and there is no admittance charge. Click on this link to visit the website.

There is a large range of topography in the state of New Jersey. The small area between the inner and outer coastal plains is called a cuesta. Rainfall on the south side ends up in the ocean. On the north side, it goes to large New Jersey rivers. Water is clean and pure in the south side of the cuesta.

A little known fact: the highest point on the USA eastern seaboard is Highlands, near Sandy Hook. He described the history of Sandy Hook lighthouse and other features on the Sandy Hook spit. He also mentioned Dismal Swamp in Edison, Rutgers Gardens, Delaware and Raritan Canal, Hackensack meadowlands and Lakota Wolf Preserve near Delaware Water-Gap. There are so many nice places to see, people should focus on places in the state that match their interests (birds, trees, etc.). For example, there are 700-year-old Black Gum trees in South Jersey. You can watch the sun rise in Cape May and then at the end of the day go over to Sunset Beach to watch the sun set into the Delaware Bay in the West.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the talk.