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Glowordz, Car-driven sawmills were actually quite common in the Pines. Every piece of equipment earned its keep. Those old vehicles were tractor-like, with plenty of torque available to navigate through sugar sand and mire. In Old Uncle Jenks' case, vehicle-driven woodcutting filled frequent...

Thanks for the kind words. Nothing smelled sweeter than the cedar-dust at Batsto sawmill! Have you noticed how warblers pluck Atlantic whitecedar bark off the trunk and line their nests with their bounty? I bet they too benefit from the aromatherapy, or at least get deloused in the process...

There were oodles of sawmills throughout the Pines, at least six in Richland alone if the hoop-pole factory is included. Two were in my “backyard”: 1) Uncle Jenk Evans’ Model T-driven mill; and 2) the Lafferty diesel-powered mill. The latter was built (c.1935) during the Great Depression of...

a standard of measure If this was cord-wood, logs usually chopped in 4-feet lengths for firewood, are sawmills necessarily involved? I've always associated the term cord as a fuel-use measurement. Are other lumber products measured in cordage?

Excellent! We would love to hear about your family's association with the sand plant, Mitzpah village, and Gigantic City. Are we on the right track?

White bread, mayonnaise We've come a long way since Pinelands hamlets had racially based exclusionary clauses written into deeds. Good riddance. Eastern and southern Europeans were at times considered non-white. Shades of Kallikak may unjustifiably still stigmatize the Pines. So if I seem a...

Sustainability science is a fancy word for old-fashioned Piney cheap living know-how! Thanks Paddler. My point is that Pinelands rural lifestyles are generally less consumptive than the current unsustainable consumer-driven economic model we’re becoming accustomed to. Pineys and...

The messenger, wherever he's from, exposes a very real flaw with some of the ways we operate. I’m afraid that we simply don’t have the same mindset as the rest of the world when it comes to sustainability science. Tackling and mitigating climate change, energy supply, water supply, and food...

Not quite so fast... Sorry to disappoint but there are extensive tracts composed of pure chir pine (Pinus roxburghii) in the Himalayas of India. Considering chir pine’s heat, drought, and fire tolerance, their stands on poor sandy soils could probably be considered “barrens.” Like pitch...

windows into the groundwater Pine Barrens intermittent pools are unlike vernal pools in other regions. South Jersey spungs are not isolated entities but complex groundwater systems, similar to the Carolina Bays as described by Pyzoha et al. (2008: A conceptual hydrologic model for a forested...

Size Does Matter! According to an article published in The National Wetlands Newsletter (January-February 2000), the preservation of smaller isolated wetlands may be more important towards maintaining biodiversity than the preservation of larger ones. According to Semlitsch (2000: 5), “The...

Snake, I'd be happy to contribute to intermittent pool geomorphology and cultural use. Also, a brief field trip could provide added value. My avatar "spung" photograph was taken next to Stockton's Arts & Sciences Building parking lot. Spung-Man

I'm my own grandpa...

Drill, baby drill in the Pinelands National Reserve Twenty-years ago my property changed from 3.2-acre Rural Development to 30-acre Forestry zoning, which was OK by me since I was grandfathered by the Pinelands cultural exclusion. Our family members were considered traditional, long-term Pine...

funeral march... Dah da da-dah da da-da-da-da-da-dahhhh!

who's economic stimulus? Maxwellandson, Housing subdivisions are no friend of small homebuilders or residents. Clustering, Smart Growth, and Redevelopment are all Pinelands Commission endorsed mechanisms that will make it even more likely that mega-developers will find it profitable to...

suitable music Burls are found on many tree species including hollies and are often poorly understood. Bacteria, Fungi, and insects are the usual suspects but most cases remain enigmatic. Years back the stock response was to invoke Crown Gall (Agrobacterium tumefaciens) for various plant...

ghosts of posts-past, ...and future? With access to economic stimulus funding, the local entrepreneurs could soon fulfill their dreams of fast-tracking Smart Growth into the Pinelands National Reserve. Although the current recovery plan purports to encourage green collar pursuits, I worry that...

:) sorry 'paddler - it is funny!

Thanks Manumuskin! Tolerance is good medicine all around. Science professes to include all knowledge in its pursuit of a scientific point of view, although in my experience I assure you this is not the case (see Peter’s Principal in my 02-08-09 post, Ice Age Relicts at Ground Zero). All in...