Hurley Pond

Allenwood Road, Wall Township, Monmouth County, NJ

25 Acres

Directions:

Garden State Parkway south to exit 98; turn left onto Route 38 heading east; turn left onto Allenwood Road; a short distance beyond Hurley Lake (on your left) turn left into an open area where you can park.

History:

The Monmouth Conservation Foundation (MCF) actively encouraged, and worked with, Wall Township to apply for Green Acres funding to acquire 24 acres adjacent to Hurley Pond so that the property could be kept in its natural state and to prevent a sub-division. Wall obtained a Green Acres loan/grant of $712,000 for this acquisition and closed on the property November 7, 1994.

(Source: http://www.monmouthconservation.org/land.html)

Trails:

March 27, 2004. No apparent trails. We can hear the spring peepers’ song. The area can obviously be a little swampy, but when we were there there were large dry areas so we could bushwhack over to the lake.

PLANT LIST:

Dr. Patrick L. Cooney

* = blooming on date of visit, March 27, 2004

Trees:

Acer rubrum (red maple) *

Ilex opaca (American holly)

Juniperus virginiana (red cedar)

Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum)

Pinus sp. (pine) – three needled, 4 " long

Prunus serotina (black cherry)

Quercus alba (white oak)

Salix sp. (willow) *

Shrubs:

Alnus sp. (alder)

Clethra alnifolia (sweet pepperbush)

Ligustrum sp. (privet)

Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)

Vines:

Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)

Smilax sp. (greenbrier)

Vitis sp.

Herbs:

Cardamine hirsuta (hairy bittercress) *

Potentilla sp. (cinquefoil)

Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)

Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion)

Veronica persica (bird's eye speedwell) *

Rushes:

Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:

Carex striata (tussock sedge)

Grasses:

Panicum virgatum (switch grass)

Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)

Others:

British soldiers

Sphagnum sp. (Sphagnum moss)