The Lance Property is a 37-acre tract of land located in the Preservation Area of the Highlands in Tewksbury Township, Hunterdon County.   It is about 40% open fields and 60% mature forest with some steep slopes.  A headwater stream of the Cold Brook, a trout production stream, flows between the agricultural fields.

Tewksbury Land Trust’s acquisition of the Lance Property prevented the impact of development and provided the opportunity to enhance the conservation values of the property by further buffering the stream and changing the surrounding land use to one that is less erodable.

The property is adjacent to preserved property to the south, and is one property removed from Upper Raritan Watershed Association’s Fox Hill Preserve. It is in the vicinity of the Whitman tract, purchased by Tewksbury Land Trust last year and builds on multi-organization and governmental effort to preserve a greenway along the Cold Brook and its tributaries.

The Lance Property is also part of a large forest complex that provides habitat for several threatened and endangered species.

The Lance Property was sold to settle an estate tax bill.  The property would have been developed, but the Tewksbury Land Trust (TLT) stepped in to purcahse it.  Although most of the funding was raised at closing, not all of it was available when they closed, in late September 2006.    To ensure that the property was purchased in time, TLT applied for and was awarded a low interest loan of $1,000,000 from the Open Space Institute's New Jersey Conservation Loan Program. 

This was a high leverage project with many funding partners.  These included:

NJDEP Green Acres Program:      $450,000

Tewksbury Township:                 $250,000

Lamington Conservancy:            $100,000 (from a Green Acres Grant)

Hunterdon County:                     $250,000

Private Individuals:                     $240,000