In one South Jersey town, alarm about hunting and worries about development

The possibility of organized hunting in an unusual portion of the Pine Barrens in Evesham has heightened concerns about the future of the beloved but beleaguered stretch of woodlands and wetlands.

But before getting started, let's hear from a former Evesham police chief, and now township manager, Mike  Barth.

"No hunting group will be in there," he said. "You can only hunt on private property with the permission of the owner, and the owner has made it clear to our police department there will be no authorization given."

The controversy got started in January after "no trespassing" signs began to appear along the part of  the woodlands bordering the Sturbridge Lakes section of Voorhees.

Neighborhood residents were taken aback by this unequivocal ban on hiking, cycling, and other activities they have enjoyed — or perhaps have felt entitled to enjoy — on the privately owned, previously unmarked land near their homes.

Some in Sturbridge Lakes have long wondered whether the 768-acre portion of the wooded site that is owned by the development-inclined Samost companies will someday be built upon.

Evesham Mayor Randy Brown, who would like to see some of the Samost property  preserved and other parts developed as housing, said many plans have been talked about in the last decade but not one has been submitted to the township planning board — much to his chagrin.

But plenty of trespassing, trash-dumping, ATV trailblazing, and other activities potentially harmful to the fragile Pinelands ecosystem have been going on there for years. Not only on the Samost property, but other privately and publicly owned ground nearby as well.

Together, these several thousand acres encompass rare habitats, a former airfield, a former sewage-treatment facility, the scenic Black Run Nature Preserve, and the pristine headwaters of Black Run, a Rancocas Creek tributary, itself.

"The Black Run watershed has somehow survived suburban development, and the water supports tons of native wildlife and plants," said Carleton Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, an advocacy organization.

"It's a little island of nature that is very close to a lot of people," he added. "If the headwaters are developed, there will be a lot of negative impacts."

What alarmed Sturbridge residents recently was not Black Run but an email address on those new orange warning signs for something called the "Kettle Run sportsmen" association.

Was it a hunting club? Or some other potentially problematic new neighbor?

Perhaps because of the hot-button issues involved — guns, child safety, the environment — the temperature of the questions was heated from the start.

Rumors erupted on social media after unpleasant encounters between residents and association members in person, and online.

Even I was on the receiving end of an oddly belligerent email from a "Kettle Run sportsman," who critiqued a column about the controversy before he'd read or I'd written a word of it — a novel, if ineffective, attempt to influence the news narrative.

Meanwhile, the impact of an astutely organized grassroots opposition effort, as well as concerns in the wake of recent school shootings across the country, was evident during a community meeting March 14.

"There's something fishy here," longtime resident Jennifer Edwards said during the  public session of a homeowners group called the Sturbridge Lakes Association at Signal Hill elementary school.

She spoke after it became unclear whether there was such a thing as a sportsmen's association (there is), or whether it had gotten permission for hunting on the Samost property (it hadn't).

"We're not the ones dumping back there. We care about our community," said Darren Marcotte, a father of three who told me he bought a Sturbridge house in part due to the nearby woods. "We just want to be able to go there with our kids."

Mike Ward, who manages the 768 acres of Samost holdings, told the gathering that the family has never authorized shooting on the property.

"Nobody is allowed to hunt on our ground," he declared, noting that a church day-camp program leases a site there in the summer.

Ward also told the 75 people in the audience that there are "no plans — no imminent plans — to develop the land."

Some remained unconvinced.

"Impending plans for development are what led to the signs," homeowners group president Ed Ferruggia later told me. "And they [the Samost companies] got a reaction they didn't expect."

So did a small group of local hunters and other volunteers who in January began paying for and posting the signs, said John Tomaski, a conservationist working with Ward to help secure, clean up, and protect the Samost property.

The volunteers hauled away a considerable amount of illegally dumped tires and construction debris and built a gate on a Kettle Run Road to limit illegal access.

They encountered smoldering fires, a homemade shooting range, and local individuals asserting a "right" to hunt illegally — or do whatever else they want to do in the woods where they are, you know,  trespassing.

"Everything the volunteers did has gotten twisted. They've gotten crucified," Tomaski told me by phone, citing a local TV news report that declared  "a new shooting range has gone up" in the woods.

(For the record: There is no operating, or planned, shooting range.)

I can certainly empathize with the civic-minded volunteers, and with the frustrated Sturbridge residents.

Voorhees Mayor Michael Mignogna, and township committeeman Michael Friedman cited Ward's positive statements at the Sturbridge meeting.

The property manager had talked about the feasibility of a pass or permit system to authorize township residents to use the woods for passive recreation. Two such authorizations have since been issued, Ward told me last Friday.

He also said that while liability is a concern, he is willing to discuss the possibility of Sturbridge residents helping with future cleanups.

The township "would want something in writing" about such proposals, Friedman noted.

I certainly hope an agreement can be reached. It would be a chance for residents, hunters, and landowners to work together on behalf of a special place they all care about.