Fire plan would cut 2.4 million New Jersey Pinelands trees

[Teegate]

Fire plan would cut 2.4 million New Jersey Pinelands trees

New Jersey environmental officials say the plan to kill trees in a section of Bass River State Forest is designed to better protect against catastrophic wildfires.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[stiltzkin]

Hmm. Not sure what to think about this one. Knee jerk reaction is that it should not be done; it seems likely to cause more damage than it would prevent. Especially the mention of spraying some sort of chemicals to prevent "invasive species regeneration." Some skepticism that the state will restrict itself to its stated aims is healthy.

But I have no expertise in this area. I'm curious what others who understand far more about fire ecology than I do think of this.

 

[bobpbx]

Again. Map laziness. It must be infectious.

 

[Scroggy]

"We are in an era of climate change; it's incumbent on us to do our utmost to preserve these trees that are sequestering carbon."

My dude, if you want to sequester carbon, I would suggest you not do it in an ecosystem historically featuring a frequent fire disturbance cycle. Sussex County is that-a-way.

Granted it's little quote snippets in a news story, which can make anyone look like an idiot, but it's not exactly a confidence booster.

 

[smoke_jumper]

I wonder how may trees would die if a fire rolled through the same 1300 acres.

 

[Teegate]

I have been looking over the map from other articles and the thinning is taking the tree cutters in places that have some really old and interesting stones. I am going to contact them and see if they are receptive in avoiding or at least protecting them.

 

[noboat]

I would like to see them open it up for the public to cut for fire wood

 

[manumuskin]

I smell money in it for someone.

 

[smoke_jumper]

There are programs available to harvest fire wood from public land. I’ve done it a few times over the years.

Homepage | Atlantic County Government, NJ

 

[Scroggy]

I smell money in it for someone.

That might be a Yankee Candle.

From rather peripheral experience to a somewhat similar project, old dense pitch pine stands are pretty worthless as far as timber goes. They can be used for pulp or shavings for animal bedding, probably the latter, unless there's a paper mill closer than I think. I don't want to underestimate the ability of graft to appear in New Jersey contracts, but they're not plundering some commercially valuable resource here.

 

[Teegate]

I say let them do it. There are many other places that should also be thinned. However, they need to be mindful of history and I don't think many of the people involved really know what is out there.

 

[manumuskin]

That might be a Yankee Candle.

From rather peripheral experience to a somewhat similar project, old dense pitch pine stands are pretty worthless as far as timber goes. They can be used for pulp or shavings for animal bedding, probably the latter, unless there's a paper mill closer than I think. I don't want to underestimate the ability of graft to appear in New Jersey contracts, but they're not plundering some commercially valuable resource here. They do make money off of pulp and thats most likely what they will sell it for

 

[Deleted member 7363]

What ever happened with this project? Has it been completed, and if so, is it accessible to the public? I recall being up in that area after the 1999 fire and there were gates preventing further access at the bombing range boundary.

 

[Teegate]

The trees that were cut were not past the gate. And it appears to me they must have decided to not cut the woods area. They only cut along the road edges. However, if you go in the woods along the roads in some of the area's they had planned to cut, they have thinned the woods. So maybe they just decided to thin them.

 

[Deleted member 7363]

FYI: I found the state website for this. It has yet to be completed. I believe the bidding is open now, and no work has started. No wonder why nothing happens on state lands in NJ. It's been 18 months and no progress.

 

[Teegate]

There are multiple projects like that with one in Greenwood. I wrote over two years ago to them and again recently and it still has not gone into the stakeholder process.

 

[Deleted member 7363]

There are multiple projects like that with one in Greenwood. I wrote over two years ago to them and again recently and it still has not gone into the stakeholder process.

Good thing NJ doesn't have a widespread pine beetle outbreak.

 

[Boyd]

Good thing NJ doesn't have a widespread pine beetle outbreak.

It actually got pretty bad around here for awhile

"...in 2008, SPB crossed the Egg Harbor River for the first time and entered the pine forests of Atlantic County, and continues to move north and west. In 2010, New Jersey experienced the warmest growing season on record (average temperature (68.3°F) and below-average precipitation. These conditions quickly advanced SPB’s range and damage levels. SPB entered the heart of the New Jersey Pinelands..."

https://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/forest/docs/southern_pine_beetle_sm.pdf

We started discussing it here at that time. Funny to see my post now, because they ended up killing quite a lot of large pines on my land. Was just thinking about this yesterday, big rotted pines in my woods come crashing down with every storm now. I have not noticed new infestations, but they certainly could be here. Seems like it peaked awhile ago.

Southern Pine Bark Beetle

Anyone know if the pine trees in the barrens are vulnerable to this. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39660852/ns/local_news-philadelphia_pa/

forums.njpinebarrens.com

More pine beetle news....

and it ain't good. Southern pine beetle endangering New Jersey Pine Barrens http://www.app.com/article/20111025/NJNEWS/310250111/Southern-pine-beetle-endangering-New-Jersey-Pine-Barrens

forums.njpinebarrens.com

I'm sure you'll find more threads if you look for them.