STAFFORD TOWNSHIP — The township has a plan to save former cranberry bogs taken over and partially destroyed by a colony of beavers at the end of Oxycocus Road, but the federal government isn’t interested, Mayor John Spodofora says.
Former bogs include 15,000 acres adjacent to Route 72 and the Garden State Parkway — and are owned and managed by the Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge, which is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Spodofora said beavers have built dams on the federally owned property’s second bog, the area is flooded and the vegetation is dead and dying. The refuge, however, calls the area a rare white-cedar swamp; and it says draining the water would hurt other parts of the preserved land.
A township stormwater management plan would address the flooding issue and help Barnaget Bay, Spodofora says. He says the U.S. government is showing contempt to taxpayers by not accepting the township’s assistance.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_24d20a94-a38e-11e1-9c3a-0019bb2963f4.html
Former bogs include 15,000 acres adjacent to Route 72 and the Garden State Parkway — and are owned and managed by the Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge, which is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Spodofora said beavers have built dams on the federally owned property’s second bog, the area is flooded and the vegetation is dead and dying. The refuge, however, calls the area a rare white-cedar swamp; and it says draining the water would hurt other parts of the preserved land.
A township stormwater management plan would address the flooding issue and help Barnaget Bay, Spodofora says. He says the U.S. government is showing contempt to taxpayers by not accepting the township’s assistance.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_24d20a94-a38e-11e1-9c3a-0019bb2963f4.html