The New Jersey Pinelands Commission, an independent state agency with federal, state, and local representation, manages the biosphere reserve. The Pinelands serves as an on-going national experiment in the development of innovative land management techniques for resource protection and growth management. The New Jersey Pinelands forms a portion of the Outer Coastal Plain in the heavily urbanized northeastern section of the United States. It comprises the largest body of open space between Richmond, Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts, on the Mid-Atlantic coast. Consisting of approximately 450,000 hectares, the region is a mosaic of upland, wetland, and aquatic environments.
Soils are sandy, acid, and nutrient poor.
The Pine Plains, a pygmy forest of pitch pine, blackjack, and scrub oaks, is world-renowned and probably the result of frequent fires. Wetlands account for approximately 20 percent of the Pinelands. Here, suitable habitat exists for 80 percent of the rare and endangered plant and animal species of the region. Streams in the area are fed mainly from ground water supplies, including a huge aquifer underlying most of southern New Jersey, estimated to contain up to 17 trillion gallons. The Pinelands has been intensively used by man since the early days of colonization and before that by Amerindian inhabitants.