Kugler Woods

In November 2001, the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance (HLTA) facilitated the preservation of the Kugler Woods along the Delaware River.

This 220-acre property is almost entirely wooded with mature specimen hardwoods. It is a well-managed forest that has a colonial history going back to pre-revolutionary times.
Named after its 18th-century owner, the Kugler Woods provided timber for the famous Rodham Boat Works at the edge of the property. Here the Durham boats were built to haul lime from Easton, upriver. The lime was used for agriculture and the building trades, but the boats were also used by General George Washington in 1776, for the historic Christmas crossing downstream at Washington's Crossing.

The newly preserved wooded hills have many large sugar maples and the present owner has run a successful gravity-assisted maple syrup operation, believed to be the only one in Hunterdon County.

Kugler Woods was the first property preserve by HLTA in its Delaware Bluffs project area. This large block of woodlands provides critical habitat for neo-tropical songbirds that need deep forest areas to breed. Vernal ponds on the property provide habitat for numerous rare plants including Wild Comfrey, Missouri Gooseberry, and the Hairy Lip Fern (Chelantes Lanosa). The woodlands are also habitat for the long-tailed salamander and other wildlife including turkeys, hawks, owls, and coyotes.

HLTA preserved the land through a conservation easement, funded entirely by the New Jersey Green Acres Program. Through several years of negotiations and the resolution of complicated family issues, HLTA trustees were able to preserve the land. HLTA will monitor the easement in perpetuity. In turn, HLTA received a $20,000 easement-defense endowment from the owner. Long term plans include development of a public access trail.

The Kugler Woods adjoins the Martins Woods Property also preserved by HLTA.