Turnquist Farm

The Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance partnered with New Jersey Audubon Society to preserve a 70-acre parcel on Pittstown Road in Franklin Township, Hunterdon County. The previous owners of the property, Eric and Geraldine Turnquist, offered the property at a bargain price of 80% of the appraised value and they made a generous donation to provide for future stewardship costs.
The Land Trust has long focused its efforts within the Lockatong Creek watershed of the county, acquiring land to protect the high quality waterway from degradation, and the NJ Audubon had been looking for a property to acquire in Franklin Township.

According to Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship, New Jersey Audubon Society, "Our organization received a donation from a generous private donor, Joyce Georges, to apply towards the purchase of open space in Franklin Township. We worked closely with Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance to identify the right site that would address our conservation priorities. Now, county residents will have this beautiful property for passive recreation and local wildlife, including rare species of grassland birds, will also have a permanently preserved site where they can find refuge. We lack the expertise in land preservation to do something like this ourselves, so we were very fortunate to have a professional organization like the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance to act as our agent. This project could not have come together without them."

The property consists of open farm fields with long vistas in an area made up predominately of farms. The fields join 151 acres of preserved farmland to the west and the wetlands connect to the headwaters of a C-1 stream, the Lockatong Creek. Despite the fact that Mr. Turnquist had done all the engineering to subdivide the property for development, after discussions with Margaret Waldock, executive director of the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance, the Turnquists decided to preserve their land. This is the fifth property preserved by Mr. Turnquist who commented, "Someday someone will look back and say some landowners and organizations were doing something special."

The property sold for $1,212,500, which was financed by the New Jersey Audubon Society and the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance through grants they received from the New Jersey Green Acres program, Hunterdon County and Franklin Township. "This project demonstrates not only how to keep development off of farmland, but also that habitat protection and farming can go hand in hand. With NJ Audubon managing this property, the land will remain in agricultural use while providing important habitat to a diversity of bird species," according to Ms. Waldock. The NJ Audubon Society will manage the property to promote grassland bird habitat.

The Land Trust and NJ Audubon credit the Turnquists for their willingness to consider preservation as an option and the other partners whose funding made this project possible. Ms. Waldock added, "Without funding grants made available through the Green Acres program, the County and the Township, properties like this would eventually succumb to development, threatening species habitat, natural resources, and the future of agriculture in our county."