Buena Vista Township ( ) is a township located in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township, and all of Atlantic County, is part of the Atlantic City-Hammonton metropolitan statistical area, which in turn is included in the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden combined statistical area and the Delaware Valley.
As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 7,033,
Buena Vista was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 5, 1867, from portions of Hamilton Township. Portions of the township were taken on May 23, 1906, to create Folsom, and on September 1, 1948, to create Buena Borough. The name comes from the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista of the Mexican–American War.
The township is headquarters for Troop A of the New Jersey State Police, which covers more than and 1.7 million residents.
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On April 26, 2004, the Buena Vista Township Committee voted to temporarily rename the community of Richland, a section of Buena Vista Township. For the first half of the month of May, Richland became Mojito, New Jersey, named after the Cuban rum drink. Bacardi had offered to give the township $5,000 for recreation projects in exchange for a sign placed on U.S. Route 40 commemorating the new name. Richland was chosen because it is home to the family-run Dalponte Farms, a major east coast supplier of mint, an essential ingredient of the mojito.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 41.58 square miles (107.69 km<sup>2</sup>), including 41.08 square miles (106.39 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 0.50 square miles (1.30 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (1.20%).
Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Buena Acres, Lake Ann, New Kuban, and Pine Lake Estates.
The township borders Buena, Folsom, Hamilton Township and Weymouth Township in Atlantic County; Maurice River Township and Vineland in Cumberland County; and both Franklin Township and Monroe Township in Gloucester County.
The township is one of 56 South Jersey municipalities that are included within the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, a protected natural area of unique ecology covering , that has been classified as a United States Biosphere Reserve and established by Congress in 1978 as the nation's first National Reserve. Part of the township is included in the state-designated Pinelands Area, which includes portions of Atlantic County, along with areas in Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean counties. 90% of the township's area is within the boundaries of the Pine Barrens.