Michael Huber Preserve

Adjacent to Sooy Preserve, this area also contains a unique ecological habitat and geological terrain. More unique trees, such as the black gum, are common here. The terrain consists of sharper, shorter, and steeper hills, as opposed to other areas in the pine barrens, where the hills are higher and less steep.

Michael Huber preserve enterance signs

Crisp plant skeleton

Aged cedar tree

Much of the oak and black gum forests are found in this preserve, but plenty of uplands and wetlands reside here as well.

Wetland forest

Dead forest swamp

The easier part of a ghost area

Larger Scope of the Forest

Michael Huber is unique compared to the rest of the Pinelands. Its blackgum forests, sharper-hilled and bumpy terrain, give it a different sensation from other pine forests in the pinelands. The soil is also more compact within the black gum areas.

Lowland blackgum wooded forest

Area that has more oak than pine

Upland trail

Early evening forest

Early evening see-through forest

Golden light shines through trees

In the blackgum forest a dirt road becomes a trail

Dense blackgum forest trail

Transition from Uplands to Blackgum-lands

A trail in the uplands curves. You do not know what is around that bend yet. This unique preserve offers unexpected twists, unlike many other preserves and state forests in the area. From pine and oak-filled uplands to wetland blackgum, this is a transition between the two.

An area of scrub oak surrounds the black gum area.

Pine-oak transition to blackgum

Surrounding oak area

Outside of blackgum forest