The small hamlet of Rosemont in southwestern Hunterdon County is a bucolic mix of preserved farmland and historic buildings. The Rosemont Rural Agricultural District, which includes part of the Wickecheoke Creek valley and flanking ridge, is listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.

This special place, where New Jersey Conservation Foundation has been preserving farmland and open space for over 30 years, just landed on another list.

Last Thursday, Preservation New Jersey named the Rosemont Rural Agricultural District to its "10 Most Endangered" sites, along with other historic properties throughout the state threatened by proposed gas pipelines.

The PennEast Pipeline, proposed to transport fracked natural gas from Luzerne County, Pa., to a point near Trenton, would cut through the Rosemont Rural Agricultural District, threatening its farmland, forests, streams and historic structures.

Other endangered sites include parts of Burlington, Ocean and Monmouth counties along the proposed route of a New Jersey Natural Gas pipeline; parts of Somerset, Hunterdon and Mercer counties that would be crossed by the Transcontinental (TRANSCO) pipeline; and parts of Passaic and Bergen counties along the proposed route of the Tennessee Gas pipeline. 

"We are finding ourselves having to fight to protect the things that we thought we preserved," Alix Bacon, regional manager for New Jersey Conservation Foundation, told the Times of Trenton. New Jersey Conservation helped get the Rosemont district listed on the historic registers.

The proposed pipelines, noted Preservation New Jersey, "are a short-term solution to a long-term energy supply problem. The negative effects on New Jersey's historical and natural resources will be permanent."

Thank you, Preservation New Jersey, for drawing attention to endangered places like the Rosemont Rural Agricultural District!

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