Happy #WildflowerWednesday! Here are new views of native white fringed orchids blooming in the New Jersey Pinelands. The white fringed #orchid generally blooms from July to August and is one of almost 30 native, wild orchid species that can be found in the Pinelands. 🌼 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC

PAINT BY NUMBERS: Happy Turtle Tuesday! Here's a new view of a native eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) that had just crossed a driving trail en route to a bog. I've seen more painted turtles in my travels in the Pinelands than other turtle species this year. 🐢 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC

WELL, HELLO THERE: Let's ease into Monday with a new photo of a slaty skimmer #dragonfly perched on a twig beside the Wading River in Wharton State Forest in the New Jersey Pinelands. 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #insects #wildlife #nature

Three’s company on Squirrel Sunday in the New Jersey Pinelands … 📷: Paul Leakan, Pinelands Commission Communications Officer #squirrels #wildlife #nature

MONUMENT OAK TREE: Happy August! Here are new photos of the Monument Tree at Sawmill Park in Buena Vista Township in the New Jersey Pinelands. 🌳 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #oaks #trees #tree #NJ

HOW SWEET IT IS: Native sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) is permeating the Pinelands air with its sweet fragrance right now. This summer-flowering superstar boasts showy, white flowers that attract butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and humans alike. 🌼 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC

NATIVE, RARE STUNNER: Happy Thursday! Rare, native red #milkweed (Asclepias rubra) is blooming in the New Jersey Pinelands. Red milkweed grows 1-3 feet tall in acidic, moist soils, and it boasts pink to dull red to light purple #flowers that appear in late June and July. 🌸 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC

Happy Wildflower Wednesday! Here’s a new view of a cabbage white butterfly sipping nectar from a native, rare rose-colored coreopsis (Coreopsis rosea) flower in the New Jersey Pinelands. 🌸 🦋 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #butterflies #flowers #plants #insects

Happy Turtle Tuesday! The New Jersey Pinelands Commission will host a free presentation on Eastern Box Turtles at 2 p.m. on Thursday, August 6, 2026. 🐢 Tap here to register: lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/wwje5fw

Happy National New Jersey Day from the country’s first National Reserve: the 1.1-million-acre Pinelands! 🌳 🌼 🐦 📷: Paul Leakan, Pinelands Commission Communications Officer #newjersey #pinelands #nature #wildlife

ROOTING FOR YOU: Happy Sunday! Here are new photos of a burly, native white #oak (Quercus alba) that shades the entrance of our headquarters in the Pinelands Area of Pemberton Township, NJ. 🌳 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #trees #nature #forests

WADING FOR YOU: Enjoy your weekend in the New Jersey Pinelands, wherever you explore. Looks like we’ll have abundant sunshine all weekend. Here are new views of the wonderful Wading River in the New Jersey Pinelands. Have you explored the Wading River? 🛶 🌎 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #nature

Turn up the volume while watching presenter Tyler Christensen talk about owl feathers during today’s presentation at the NJ Pinelands Commission’s headquarters. More than 40 people attended the presentation. 🦉

More than 40 people learned about the owls of New Jersey during a presentation that the NJ Pinelands Commission hosted at its headquarters today.🦉 #owls #owl #birds

MILKWEED IT AND REAP: Happy #WildflowerWednesday! New Jersey native swamp #milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is blooming in the Pinelands and across South Jersey, much to the delight of #butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. 🌸 🦋 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #insects #flowers

Happy National Moth Week! Here’s a small sampling of moths and moth caterpillars that Pinelands Commission staff members have photographed in the New Jersey Pinelands. #moths #moth #insects #wildlife

Happy Turtle Tuesday! Can you identify this turtle species, which I just saw in the New Jersey Pinelands? I photographed this beauty as it was traversing a driving/hiking trail, while making sure it crossed safely. It did! 🐢 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #wildlife #nature #reptiles

MINI PEARL: Orange you glad it’s Monday? Well, here are new, orange-y photos of pearl crescent butterflies sipping nectar from native orange milkwort flowers in the New Jersey Pinelands. 🧡🦋🧡 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #butterflies #insects #flowers

BOG BEAUTIES: Happy Sunday! Here are new photos of native, insectivorous threadleaf sundews (Drosera filiformis) blooming beside native, rose-colored tickseed (Coreopsis rosea) in our bog garden. 🌸 🌎 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #flowers #nativeplants

ON THE FRINGE: Here are new photos of native white fringed orchids (Platanthera blephariglottis) starting to bloom at the edge of a moist, sandy roadside in the New Jersey Pinelands. 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #orchids #orchid #flowers

Scenes from today’s Pinelands Summer Short Course, where more than 130 people learned about the natural, cultural, and historic resources of the Pinelands. The 10th annual event was held at Stockton University’s Kramer Hall in downtown Hammonton. 🐢 🐍

Happy World Snake Day in the NJ Pinelands! Snakes are a vital part of the Pinelands ecosystem, serving as predator and prey and helping to maintain biodiversity. They’re also beautiful! Here’s a gallery of native #snakes in the Pinelands National Reserve. 🐍 📷: NJPC staff #wildlife

SUPERB ‘EM: Happy #WildflowerWednesday! Native Turk’s-cap lilies (Lilium superbum) are blooming in the New Jersey Pinelands. This stunning wildflower grows in wet Pinelands meadows and open swamps. 🌼 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #flowers #nativeplants #plants

HEAVYWEIGHT BOUT: Here are new views of two native, male common snapping #turtles engaged in full combat in a pond in the New Jersey Pinelands. They were thrashing, wrestling, scratching, biting, and lunging at each other. 🐢 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC #wildlife #nature

HERE COMES SUNSHINE: Let's jumpstart our week with new photos of sunlight peeking through the trees and bathing the forest floor in the #NewJersey #Pinelands 🌞 📷: Paul Leakan, Pinelands Commission Communications Officer #sunburst #sun #forests #trees

CUTE AS A BUTTON: Happy Sunday! Here are new photos of native common buttonbush in various stages of bloom in a former cranberry bog in the New Jersey Pinelands. 🌼 📷: Paul Leakan, Pinelands Commission Communications Officer #flowers #plants #nature

SNAKE SATURDAY, RESEARCH EDITION: Happy Snake Saturday! New Jersey Pinelands Commission science staff captured and processed 46 #snakes in June as part of the agency's rare snakes monitoring study. Here's a native corn snake coiling around her eggs. 🐍 🥚 📷: Tyler Christensen, NJPC

WAIT FOR IT: Happy Frog Friday! Turn up the volume while watching a native Pine Barrens treefrog calling in the New Jersey Pinelands, as recorded during the Pinelands Commission's scientific surveys of frogs and toads in June 2026. 🐸 📷: Christine Healy, NJPC #Frog

Nearly 40 people attended today's free presentation that focused on a native plant species that was just determined to be unique to the New Jersey Pinelands. #rareplants #nativeplants #research #botany

A BERRY GOOD DAY: Happy National #Blueberry Day in the NJ Pinelands! New Jersey ranks among the top producers of blueberries in the United States, with the vast majority of the berries grown on farms in the million-acre Pinelands Area of South Jersey. 🫐 📷: Paul Leakan, NJPC