bach2yoga
03-27-03, 09:00 AM
Guessing from the the email (veganman) it is of course biased.
Buckshutem WMA is one of the biggest hunting areas around here...schools practically close during deer week. (or at least they did when I was a kid).
In reality, the Nature Conservancy's Eldora Preserve, albeit a much smaller area, is working on the same premises, for the rare precious underwing butterfly (which has never been seen on that property).
Renee
NATURAL HABITAT OR KILLING FIELD
Date: 25 Mar 2003
From: Stu Chaifetz {veganman@hnva.net}
NATURAL HABITAT OR KILLING FIELD?
By Michael J. Grabell, NY Times, March 23, 2003
Fairfield Township - Cutting half the oak and pine trees in a 125-
acre swath of the Buckshutem wildlife area in Cumberland County could
help save the natural habitat of thousands of animals throughout the
state, some conservationists say. But others, equally adamant, contend
that the only ones who would benefit are loggers and hunters.
Those who back the tree-cutting experiment say it could transform
this section of Buchshutem, a muddy field of stumps and steaming
mounds of wood chips near the Delaware border, into a savanna home for
birds and butterflies that are threatened with extinction. If
successful, the approach will become the model for managing the
state's 284,000 acres of wildlife areas.
"If we don't do something about our wildlife now, we're going to have
to go into a museum to look at our wildlife, and we're just going to
see them stuffed and sitting on shelves," said Steve Quesenberry, of
the South Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council, which
presented the idea to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife four
years ago.
Yet in an indication of how the project has splintered
environmentalists, Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra
Club, said, "They're destroying an ecosystem to create an
environmental Disneyland."
The Division of Fish and Wildlife began the project about a year ago
in the Buckshutem (pronounced Buck-SHOOT-Em) Wildlife Management Area,
just south of Bridgeton in Cumberland County. The division says
historical accounts from early European settlers show that New Jersey
once had an ecological mosaic of grassland and open woodlands rather
than the dense forests that now make up most of the state.
The project's advocates say cutting down trees will allow more light
to reach the ground, increasing the number of shrubs and grasses,
which some rare birds, like the red-headed woodpecker and grasshopper
sparrows, depend on for food and nesting. The division plans to plant
grasses and to set controlled fires to speed the restoration.
But what supporters call restoration, opponents label manipulation.
"You don't go changing ecosystems because you want something
different," Mr. Tittel said. "Systems evolve naturally."
He suggested that the agency convert unused farmland or a strip mall
into grassland instead of a wildlife area. He and other opponents of
the plan said the division's stated purpose to help endangered species
was just a decoy for a larger effort to indulge loggers and to bow to
hunters by creating ideal grounds for deer, quail and turkey.
"Fish and Game wants the land clear-cut in exchange that they can
sell trees that they cut down," said Stu Chaifetz, of the League of
Animal Protection Voters. "The brutality of this is these things are
being done on Green Acres-bought land."
But the division rejects the idea that the state is cheating anyone
with this project. Indeed, the state is saving more than $1 million by
letting a private company, South Jersey Timber and Chip, sell whatever
timber it harvests for paper and mulch rather than paying a company to
do it.
In addition, Quail Unlimited, a conservation and hunting group, has
paid about $5,000 to help develop the plan and to conduct a study of
moths and butterflies, said John Battistini, chairman of the
organization's New Jersey chapter. The group also plans to donate
$15,000 in grass seed, he said.
Officials of the division, which is financed entirely by the sale of
hunting and fishing licenses, said the criticism was predictable.
"Certain groups have a knee-jerk reaction to anything we do because
they see us as promoting hunting and fishing," said Tony Petrongolo,
chief of the division's Bureau of Land Management.
Though proponents acknowledge that those animals would benefit from
the habitat, they say that is not the primary intent.
"Yes, we are a bunch of hunters, but the hunter is the true
conservationist," Mr. Battistini said. "We put back a lot more than we
take."
Some of the confusion seems to stem from a notice posted at the
wildlife area last year, calling the project a boon for hunters.
"The Buckshutem WMA Habitat Project will demonstrate a unique means
of converting wooded areas to a classic savannah style wildlife
habitat setting suitable for quail, turkey, deer, and many more
wildlife species," the notice said.
Mr. Chaifetz contends that the flier proved the division had just
spun a hunter's plan as one for environmentalists.
But Mr. Quesenberry of the South Jersey Resource Conservation and
Development Council, whose group came up with the flier, said the
opposite was the case - that the organizers simply worded the
environmental plan as one for hunters because it was easier to sell to
South Jersey residents.
"We were trying to attract a group of people out there that uses the
land on a day-to-day basis," he said. "To gain a habitat for rare and
endangered animals, it's easier to create habitat for animals that we
all know."
Mr. Chaifetz said that rationale is hogwash and that the division had
promoted cutting trees in its annual reports as a way to increase deer
and other game animals.
"It's as a frail as rice paper to say that argument that he's going
to create recreational animals to be killed, and yet some endangered
species are going to helped," he said.
Even members of the same group differ on the project. Although Dennis
Schvejda, conservation director for the New Jersey Sierra Club, said
he partly agreed with the director of his organization, Mr. Tittel, he
said he generally supported the plan.
"I'm in favor of a concept like this," Mr. Schvejda said. "I've read
the proposals. I think they're sound."
In this unmarked parcel - identifiable only by a crossroads after a
crop field - patches of sassafras and switchgrass have started to
regrow, said Laurie Pettigrew, a biologist with the division's land
management bureau. Three years from now, she said, scores of quail and
other critters will move among shrubs and knee-high grasses in search
of seeds and insects.
In fact, division officials have considered extending the project to
Greenwood Forest, in Ocean County, and have encouraged private
landowners to replicate it.
For now, some conservationists do not know where to stand.
Emile DeVito, of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, said he
supported the initial plan, but after hearing about clear-cutting, he
said he was not so sure.
"I'm not going to say I'm fully in support of it," he said. "I'm not
fully against it."
Top
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::
HUNTING AND FISHING DRAMATICALLY DOWN IN NJ
Date: 25 Mar 2003
From: "Peg Leg Bates" {joe.miele@verizon.net}
STATE LAUNCHES A HUNT FOR YOUTHFUL HUNTERS
By Fred J. Aun, Star-Ledger, March 25, 2003
The state Division of Fish and Wildlife needs to convince New
Jersey's youth that hunting for deer (or turkey or pheasant) is more
exciting than hunting for songs to download from the Internet.
Doing so would help the division reverse the shocking decline in the
number of people that hunt in the state. The division is funded
predominantly by hunting and fishing license fees, and officials fear
a fiscal disaster if they fail to lure more youngsters away from
technology and back to the woods.
"My gut feeling is I think basically there's been a going away from
the tradition," said Matt Di Mattia, the division's business
administrator. "With the electronic information technology of today,
that's what it is. They're just getting away from hunting and
fishing."
It might not be apparent, if you base your opinion on the number of
folks in orange on Opening Day of 6-day-firearm season, but New Jersey
hunters are dwindling quickly. In 1991, the state had 88,263 people
with resident hunting licenses. In 1992, the figure was 84,261. By
1996, there were 70,058 and by 1999 the state sold only 59,707
licenses. For the entire decade, there was only one year when the
trend was reversed: In 2000, 60,085 people signed up to be hunters.
But the slide resumed in 2001, with 56,574 licenses sold and officials
are estimating a figure of about 50,000 for 2002.
"It's approximately a 43 percent decrease from 1991 to 2002," Di
Mattia lamented. "Fishing shows a 41 percent decrease over the same
period."
He said he realizes the division can't do very much to change
society. Hunting and fishing has lost popularity due, in large part,
to forces beyond the state's control. For example, Di Mattia feels the
increase in single-parent homes - particularly those in which kids are
raised by mothers who don't hunt or fish - is a factor. Heavy work
schedules of parents also play a part. Nevertheless, Fish and Wildlife
cannot afford to do nothing. This week it will be mailing postcards to
current and former anglers, hoping to convince the latter that fishing
is a great family-bonding activity.
"Basically, it's reminding people about the upcoming fishing season,
saying that fishing is good, come out and fish," Di Mattia said. "It's
a nice postcard. There's a cutesy girl in a boat with her grand-
dad...It's a start, but it's the tip of the iceberg in terms of a
marketing campaign."
Getting people to hunt might be tougher. Before the state can mount
any campaign to bolster those ranks, it needs to find out why hunting
is so drastically declining. Di Mattia said the state really needs to
conduct a sophisticated survey of hunters and ex-hunters.
"A good survey should be designed to get somebody to tell you a
little more than yes or no answers," he noted. "Yes or no answers are
not good. You don't learn anything about behavior. But if you get them
to talk about what the problem is, you get to the root of the problem,
and you can then do various steps toward a solution."
Buckshutem WMA is one of the biggest hunting areas around here...schools practically close during deer week. (or at least they did when I was a kid).
In reality, the Nature Conservancy's Eldora Preserve, albeit a much smaller area, is working on the same premises, for the rare precious underwing butterfly (which has never been seen on that property).
Renee
NATURAL HABITAT OR KILLING FIELD
Date: 25 Mar 2003
From: Stu Chaifetz {veganman@hnva.net}
NATURAL HABITAT OR KILLING FIELD?
By Michael J. Grabell, NY Times, March 23, 2003
Fairfield Township - Cutting half the oak and pine trees in a 125-
acre swath of the Buckshutem wildlife area in Cumberland County could
help save the natural habitat of thousands of animals throughout the
state, some conservationists say. But others, equally adamant, contend
that the only ones who would benefit are loggers and hunters.
Those who back the tree-cutting experiment say it could transform
this section of Buchshutem, a muddy field of stumps and steaming
mounds of wood chips near the Delaware border, into a savanna home for
birds and butterflies that are threatened with extinction. If
successful, the approach will become the model for managing the
state's 284,000 acres of wildlife areas.
"If we don't do something about our wildlife now, we're going to have
to go into a museum to look at our wildlife, and we're just going to
see them stuffed and sitting on shelves," said Steve Quesenberry, of
the South Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council, which
presented the idea to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife four
years ago.
Yet in an indication of how the project has splintered
environmentalists, Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra
Club, said, "They're destroying an ecosystem to create an
environmental Disneyland."
The Division of Fish and Wildlife began the project about a year ago
in the Buckshutem (pronounced Buck-SHOOT-Em) Wildlife Management Area,
just south of Bridgeton in Cumberland County. The division says
historical accounts from early European settlers show that New Jersey
once had an ecological mosaic of grassland and open woodlands rather
than the dense forests that now make up most of the state.
The project's advocates say cutting down trees will allow more light
to reach the ground, increasing the number of shrubs and grasses,
which some rare birds, like the red-headed woodpecker and grasshopper
sparrows, depend on for food and nesting. The division plans to plant
grasses and to set controlled fires to speed the restoration.
But what supporters call restoration, opponents label manipulation.
"You don't go changing ecosystems because you want something
different," Mr. Tittel said. "Systems evolve naturally."
He suggested that the agency convert unused farmland or a strip mall
into grassland instead of a wildlife area. He and other opponents of
the plan said the division's stated purpose to help endangered species
was just a decoy for a larger effort to indulge loggers and to bow to
hunters by creating ideal grounds for deer, quail and turkey.
"Fish and Game wants the land clear-cut in exchange that they can
sell trees that they cut down," said Stu Chaifetz, of the League of
Animal Protection Voters. "The brutality of this is these things are
being done on Green Acres-bought land."
But the division rejects the idea that the state is cheating anyone
with this project. Indeed, the state is saving more than $1 million by
letting a private company, South Jersey Timber and Chip, sell whatever
timber it harvests for paper and mulch rather than paying a company to
do it.
In addition, Quail Unlimited, a conservation and hunting group, has
paid about $5,000 to help develop the plan and to conduct a study of
moths and butterflies, said John Battistini, chairman of the
organization's New Jersey chapter. The group also plans to donate
$15,000 in grass seed, he said.
Officials of the division, which is financed entirely by the sale of
hunting and fishing licenses, said the criticism was predictable.
"Certain groups have a knee-jerk reaction to anything we do because
they see us as promoting hunting and fishing," said Tony Petrongolo,
chief of the division's Bureau of Land Management.
Though proponents acknowledge that those animals would benefit from
the habitat, they say that is not the primary intent.
"Yes, we are a bunch of hunters, but the hunter is the true
conservationist," Mr. Battistini said. "We put back a lot more than we
take."
Some of the confusion seems to stem from a notice posted at the
wildlife area last year, calling the project a boon for hunters.
"The Buckshutem WMA Habitat Project will demonstrate a unique means
of converting wooded areas to a classic savannah style wildlife
habitat setting suitable for quail, turkey, deer, and many more
wildlife species," the notice said.
Mr. Chaifetz contends that the flier proved the division had just
spun a hunter's plan as one for environmentalists.
But Mr. Quesenberry of the South Jersey Resource Conservation and
Development Council, whose group came up with the flier, said the
opposite was the case - that the organizers simply worded the
environmental plan as one for hunters because it was easier to sell to
South Jersey residents.
"We were trying to attract a group of people out there that uses the
land on a day-to-day basis," he said. "To gain a habitat for rare and
endangered animals, it's easier to create habitat for animals that we
all know."
Mr. Chaifetz said that rationale is hogwash and that the division had
promoted cutting trees in its annual reports as a way to increase deer
and other game animals.
"It's as a frail as rice paper to say that argument that he's going
to create recreational animals to be killed, and yet some endangered
species are going to helped," he said.
Even members of the same group differ on the project. Although Dennis
Schvejda, conservation director for the New Jersey Sierra Club, said
he partly agreed with the director of his organization, Mr. Tittel, he
said he generally supported the plan.
"I'm in favor of a concept like this," Mr. Schvejda said. "I've read
the proposals. I think they're sound."
In this unmarked parcel - identifiable only by a crossroads after a
crop field - patches of sassafras and switchgrass have started to
regrow, said Laurie Pettigrew, a biologist with the division's land
management bureau. Three years from now, she said, scores of quail and
other critters will move among shrubs and knee-high grasses in search
of seeds and insects.
In fact, division officials have considered extending the project to
Greenwood Forest, in Ocean County, and have encouraged private
landowners to replicate it.
For now, some conservationists do not know where to stand.
Emile DeVito, of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, said he
supported the initial plan, but after hearing about clear-cutting, he
said he was not so sure.
"I'm not going to say I'm fully in support of it," he said. "I'm not
fully against it."
Top
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::
HUNTING AND FISHING DRAMATICALLY DOWN IN NJ
Date: 25 Mar 2003
From: "Peg Leg Bates" {joe.miele@verizon.net}
STATE LAUNCHES A HUNT FOR YOUTHFUL HUNTERS
By Fred J. Aun, Star-Ledger, March 25, 2003
The state Division of Fish and Wildlife needs to convince New
Jersey's youth that hunting for deer (or turkey or pheasant) is more
exciting than hunting for songs to download from the Internet.
Doing so would help the division reverse the shocking decline in the
number of people that hunt in the state. The division is funded
predominantly by hunting and fishing license fees, and officials fear
a fiscal disaster if they fail to lure more youngsters away from
technology and back to the woods.
"My gut feeling is I think basically there's been a going away from
the tradition," said Matt Di Mattia, the division's business
administrator. "With the electronic information technology of today,
that's what it is. They're just getting away from hunting and
fishing."
It might not be apparent, if you base your opinion on the number of
folks in orange on Opening Day of 6-day-firearm season, but New Jersey
hunters are dwindling quickly. In 1991, the state had 88,263 people
with resident hunting licenses. In 1992, the figure was 84,261. By
1996, there were 70,058 and by 1999 the state sold only 59,707
licenses. For the entire decade, there was only one year when the
trend was reversed: In 2000, 60,085 people signed up to be hunters.
But the slide resumed in 2001, with 56,574 licenses sold and officials
are estimating a figure of about 50,000 for 2002.
"It's approximately a 43 percent decrease from 1991 to 2002," Di
Mattia lamented. "Fishing shows a 41 percent decrease over the same
period."
He said he realizes the division can't do very much to change
society. Hunting and fishing has lost popularity due, in large part,
to forces beyond the state's control. For example, Di Mattia feels the
increase in single-parent homes - particularly those in which kids are
raised by mothers who don't hunt or fish - is a factor. Heavy work
schedules of parents also play a part. Nevertheless, Fish and Wildlife
cannot afford to do nothing. This week it will be mailing postcards to
current and former anglers, hoping to convince the latter that fishing
is a great family-bonding activity.
"Basically, it's reminding people about the upcoming fishing season,
saying that fishing is good, come out and fish," Di Mattia said. "It's
a nice postcard. There's a cutesy girl in a boat with her grand-
dad...It's a start, but it's the tip of the iceberg in terms of a
marketing campaign."
Getting people to hunt might be tougher. Before the state can mount
any campaign to bolster those ranks, it needs to find out why hunting
is so drastically declining. Di Mattia said the state really needs to
conduct a sophisticated survey of hunters and ex-hunters.
"A good survey should be designed to get somebody to tell you a
little more than yes or no answers," he noted. "Yes or no answers are
not good. You don't learn anything about behavior. But if you get them
to talk about what the problem is, you get to the root of the problem,
and you can then do various steps toward a solution."