Endangered New Jersey: The Jersey Devil Reappears

The Jersey Devils hockey team has started its season. Halloween is about two weeks away. And the legendary Jersey Devil has reappeared. Maybe. Well, it has at least reappeared in the media.

The legend of the Jersey Devil dates back for centuries. Hundreds of people have reported seeing the creature, but despite extensive searches, no one has proven its existence.

These tales are more likely the domain of places like StuffTheyDontWantYouToKnow.com and Weird N.J. than this blog, but I do find it fun.

And, starting with much doubt about authenticity but keeping in mind that Halloween is closing in, I present this latest installment of the JDevil.

This time the report comes via an article on the legitimate news site NJ.com. A Little Egg Harbor resident says he has captured the Jersey Devil in a photo, and then good ol' weirdnj.com posted a video from a woman who claims to have recorded the Jersey Devil flying by.

My much younger sons prepared for
a Jersey Devil search in the Pine Barrens

When my sons were a lot younger and we did a lot of camping, we would sometimes stay in the Jersey Pine Barrens (AKA Pinelands). Those overnighters always included a hunt for the creature.

I would read them a a kid's book about the legend as we sat in front of the campfire and watch the shadows moving around us and heard creepy night sounds like the call of a barred owl. (I would tell them that some people say that owl is saying "Who cooks for you?" but I said what we were hearing was more like "He wants to get you."

We even had a TV show visit the state in search of Bigfoot (AKA Sasquatch).

If you like to play armchair cryptozoologist, and if you were to search for either of these creatures, you would certainly want to look for them in the Pine Barrens.

The Pine Barrens (AKA the Pinelands or simply the Pines) is a large, heavily forested area of coastal plain. Congress created the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, the country's first National Reserve, to protect the area under the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978.

The New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve contains approximately 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) of land, and occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area, including territory of much of seven counties. Counties affected by the Act are Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean.

The name "pine barrens" is kind of a misnomer because it is hardly barren. The name refers to the area's sandy, acidic, nutrient-poor soil in which colonists could not cultivate their familiar crops. It actually has a great diversity of plant life, including orchids and carnivorous plants, and several threatened and endangered species of wildlife. It is known for its cranberry bogs and the rare pygmy Pitch Pines and other plant species that actually depend on the frequent fires of the Pine Barrens to reproduce.

The Pinelands are a great place to visit, and a great place to live if you are a legendary creature.