Ghost Forest

[rc911]

An article about the Pine Barrens and infiltration by sea water will be published in the Star Ledger tomorrow. Here is a brief description of the article:

THE GHOST FOREST

Parts of the state’s storied Pine Barrens is becoming a ghost forest. The Pine Barrens stretches across seven counties and more than a million acres but recently some of its trees are dying, giving way to salt water marshes. It’s a natural phenomenon that has happened before. Scientists believe that sea level rise, caused by climate change driven by human activity, has worsened the situation beyond repair. In NEWS.

 

[ninemileskid]

HA HA!!! It's payback for all the salt marshes we've filled and built on over the years!
And.....the recent approval of spreading dredge spoils over the salt marshes (sure, they've justified it but the truth is it's the easiest, cheapest way to get rid of it) isn't helping things either.

 

[GermanG]

HA HA!!! It's payback for all the salt marshes we've filled and built on over the years!
And.....the recent approval of spreading dredge spoils over the salt marshes (sure, they've justified it but the truth is it's the easiest, cheapest way to get rid of it) isn't helping things either.

One habitat being replaced by another is not necessarily a problem, at least from an environmental standpoint, but what is a problem is that less new salt marshes are going to form inland, the way they once did during past climate shifts, because much of the potential forest that would naturally transition to marsh are now human coastal developments of one type or another and society does not relinquish these areas without a fight, no matter how costly it may be to taxpayers. Sadly, as sea levels rise, much of our marshland has nowhere to go.

 

[ninemileskid]

Excellent point. Lots of that shoreline is now bulkheaded or rip-rapped to prevent the transition, this also removes much needed habitat.

 

[enormiss]

Just watched an interesting piece on CBS this morning about Maya Lin exhibit in Madison Square Park.
Couldn't find a link to that video but this is similar...

 

[manumuskin]

Just watched an interesting piece on CBS this morning about Maya Lin exhibit in Madison Square Park.
Couldn't find a link to that video but this is similar...

They stole my trees.

 

[bobpbx]

But they never holler about beaver killing cedars via flooding and cutting them down.

 

[Boyd]

Deer do far more damage to the cedars than beaver IMO. When I bought my property in 2006 there were a couple very nice stands of cedars, They're old and the wind knocks more of them down every year, this winter was especially bad. Plenty of little cedars are sprouting but the deer eat them all. In a few years, the maples will have completely replaced them.

 

[bobpbx]

Yes Boyd, but Beaver do 3 kinds of damage. They flood both the seedlings and mature trees, and they chop them down like lumber jacks.

https://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/forest/Atlantic%20white-cedar.pdf

 

[Boyd]

I can see how that endangers certain areas where there are beavers, but the deer are everywhere in large numbers. My gut feeling is that in terms of overall acreage, the deer are a much bigger threat. There was a time when this kind of thing bothered me, but with the passing of the years I now think nature needs to take its course most of the time. When man tries to "improve" it there are often unforeseen consequences.

 

[1Jerseydevil]

" nature needs to take its course most of the time. When man tries to "improve" it there are often unforeseen consequences."

Aren't beavers the only other animal able to change its environment? Of the two, which is most destructive to nature? Then I have to ask, beavers are destructive to who, humans who don't like change or nature in creating a new environment that is part of nature going through a different phase cycle?

With deer, isn't it mainly a matter of overpopulation for sustainability? Isn't famine nature's way to control overpopulation be it animal, insect and yes even human?

 

[ninemileskid]

In South Jersey they dyked large areas to farm salt hay. There are many muskrats (muskrat and oyster dinners at the fire houses) there. Some blame the anti fur people, some blame new trapping regulations but the muskrat population is expanding like never before. They burrow through the dykes and the farmers can't keep up the repairs / maintenance. The tide runs in and out of the muskrat holes till the dykes breech. In one spot we flew over you could see a fresh water stream that was affected. The vegetation on either side of the stream was dead and grey for miles inland. Is a freshwater marsh more valuable than a saltwater marsh? Might depend on where you are, might depend on who you are. Not my call to make. Lots of thing affect the environment. Look at the big picture.

 

[bobpbx]

Their name ends with "rat". That says it all.