Minchella Woods

In April 2004, the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance (HLTA) partnered with Hunterdon County and the New Jersey Green Acres Program to preserve an 85-acre woodland property located in the New Jersey Highlands in Bethlehem Township.

The land is adjacent to the Hunterdon County-owned Musconetcong Gorge County Park and is part of the ridgeline of the Musconetcong Mountain.

One hundred years ago this mountain was bare when the trees were cut for charcoal production and low-grade cattle grazing. Even though the mix of large deciduous trees growing on the land today is not ?old growth?, the forest has earned ecological significance through the habitat that it now provides.

Today, Minchella Woods serves as habitat for pileated woodpeckers and ovenbirds, which require deep woodlands to breed and thrive. In combination with adjacent protected properties and the Tower Hill Park next door, the preserved land provides an area large enough to be self-sustaining for wildlife, a node of necessary critical mass.

Additionally, the mountain top land drains to both the Musconetcong River and Mullhockaway Creek. The forest land protects the water quality of both waterways by mitigating erosion from runoff and recharging groundwater aquifers.

Future plans call for a regional hiking trail known as the Highlands Trail, to cross the Trepani Woods property and link the Spruce Run Wildlife Management Area to the Musconetcong Gorge County Park.