Crews Battling Wildfire Along Mullica River in South Jersey’s Wharton State Forest
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
No. I was at Atsion this morning and the road along the Mullica to Locks Bridge and Wescoat is blocked. However, someone ran the cones over so I guess they were not happy about it. I was at Wescoat this morning. Will report soon.
Headed out early and noticed the road to Locks Bridge and Wescoat was closed at Atsion. So I just bypassed it by going down Dave's Road and walking all the way to Wescoat and beyond. I will post my tracks later. I was hoping to find an Atsion Tract stone and a few more of the Wescoat Bog monuments. I have to say in the 40 years I have been exploring the pines today was the most annoying the pine flies have ever been. They were relentless and in massive numbers. I don't know if it was because of the fires but I was struggling with them. Maybe it was because I was not feeling up to par today but I would suggest you stay in your vehicle if you go out anytime soon.
The puddles were manageable if you take a good 4x4 vehicle. The biggest puddle has a go around and one other is slightly deep. I walked it but I am sure I would have made it in my CRV.
Looks deep but it isn't.
At every location I wanted to go the fire had not touched so I did not find anything. I will have to go back when I feel better and the pine flies are gone.
I found this tree on fire underground so I took a video of it. There were plenty of places still burning and a few times I started to be concerned my boots may have been taking a beating from the heat. But all is well.
You can hear and even see the pine flies buzzing by.
https://youtu.be/ozIF9ola-nQ
The puddles were manageable if you take a good 4x4 vehicle. The biggest puddle has a go around and one other is slightly deep. I walked it but I am sure I would have made it in my CRV.
Looks deep but it isn't.
At every location I wanted to go the fire had not touched so I did not find anything. I will have to go back when I feel better and the pine flies are gone.
I found this tree on fire underground so I took a video of it. There were plenty of places still burning and a few times I started to be concerned my boots may have been taking a beating from the heat. But all is well.
You can hear and even see the pine flies buzzing by.
https://youtu.be/ozIF9ola-nQ
Its no different than a town, county, or state road. The owner is the owner, I can't understand why people keep beating a dead horse...
Because they want to go down the road like they did previously. Nobody likes it when the good old boys single out a few to have privileges. It is simple as that.
Your probably correct. With that said, your also right with "a few". It's only a few that complain and why nothing is going to change from the status. Rockwood can be used to get to the dead end at the bridge just the same. Maybe more people should push for a new bridge instead. ♂
Went out today too as well but felt like I may have mostly been on outskirts of the fire. Went down penn swamp road and up Quaker ridge. Then went along the batsto for a while up to Quaker bridge. Everywhere I was for most part looked like a hot controlled burn. Behind batsto looked like scorched earth but only briefly. I still can’t figure out where the burn was specifically because they seemed to really do a ton of backfires and rightly so. I did find a nice little island where 6 box turtles where roaming between a sea of burnt forest. Only found 1 burnt turtle but it was old.
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Well yeah, things are tough to know when the tax maps are so dicked up you can't figure out who owns it. If I were Guvner, I'd do an emergency order to open the woods up to the citizens. We own 'em, we should be able to use 'em.
Only a few? Over 1,000 citizens signed the petition to give us access. That's more than a few, and it landed on the DEP head's desk.Your probably correct. With that said, your also right with "a few". It's only a few that complain and why nothing is going to change from the status. Rockwood can be used to get to the dead end at the bridge just the same. Maybe more people should push for a new bridge instead. ♂
And did it work? Just use the other road, it goes to the same place. A dead end.
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You are quite the optomistic person. Maybe someone should bolster that petition with another. Give me your name and adress and I'll write a petition for you and I'll get the signatures, and I'll submit it in your name, as if it came from you. You don't even have to lift a finger. Sound okay?
I don't care about it being closed. It has no effect on me and I'm not crying about it. If I wanted to access the area I'd just go a different direction. I can except things that are unlike some people who feel entitled because they pay taxes. Here's a shock, we all pay taxes and that's life. I hunted Rockwood back in the 90's and if I wanted to do the work I'd do it again. Its not the end of the world...
Oh, I see. That is an unusual stance. And you felt the same way 7 years ago when Wharton had a plan to close many of the roads?
They are calling it the "Brick Yard" fire. I wonder if it is named that because of the brick factory that Asa Pittman or his father once had???? Should be interesting to know.
If you want to start that conversation you better have some better reasoning and factual statements on the issue. I'm not going to waste my time arguing over who is right and who is wrong. I can already picture your argument meerly on I pay taxes and their my roads blah blah blah...
Yes, there are roads that have existed for a hundred years and have been driven by many including myself. However in the last 20 to 25 years the end of the Wharton Era have shown with roads and drainages not being taken care of prior by the previous owners. In addition, these roads were not ment to have the traffic that they see presently. The added wear and tear, lack of timely maintenance and the additional of atv and orv have taken its toll. So to answer you point directly, yes, I feel that there are roads that should be closed that were actually fire containment lines and left open. There are roads through wet areas that should also be closed or at least during the wet seasons to save the infrastructure from extensive damage. Maybe not entirely to the extent the map had been banned but to a certain degree. I also feel that every road should have a gate on it and be closed temporarily if needed. Such as in the case of road conditions, roadwork, fires, or storm damage. Right wrong or indifferent let you "I use to do's" go and wake up to what is really going on in our forest and try and keep what we have left. The infrastructure is being beat to death faster that anything and anyone could even be done one way or another. It work in any other state I have ever been in, with the addition of enforcement and hefty fines for illegal activities. (Which this state lacks)
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