In a swampy forest in Chatsworth, Burlington County, he stood on a fallen tree, surrounded by hundreds of other 60- to 80-foot Atlantic white cedars that covered the ground "like pickup sticks."
The increasingly rare and valuable cedars were knocked down in a remote area off Route 563 as the megastorm Sandy barreled through New Jersey in October. The damage was not immediately discovered.
"I was stunned," said McLaughlin, head of operations for Advanced Forestry Solutions of Pittsgrove, who will carefully sort through the tangled trees to reclaim what he can for a lumber mill.
"You sort through them one by one, trying not to affect the others around it," he said. "You don't know how they're going to fall."
As the state continues to deal with Sandy's pressing human needs, officials and forestry experts are finding another layer of storm damage - to the dwindling number of cedar stands, often found in wetland areas.
The state has conducted some aerial surveys, and landowners have reported several cedar forests flattened by Sandy's winds, which gusted up to 89 miles an hour. Some aerial checks have been made at Double Trouble State Park, part of the Pinelands in Ocean County.(Edward Colimore)
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130224_Sandy_Victims__Stately_Cedars.html
The increasingly rare and valuable cedars were knocked down in a remote area off Route 563 as the megastorm Sandy barreled through New Jersey in October. The damage was not immediately discovered.
"I was stunned," said McLaughlin, head of operations for Advanced Forestry Solutions of Pittsgrove, who will carefully sort through the tangled trees to reclaim what he can for a lumber mill.
"You sort through them one by one, trying not to affect the others around it," he said. "You don't know how they're going to fall."
As the state continues to deal with Sandy's pressing human needs, officials and forestry experts are finding another layer of storm damage - to the dwindling number of cedar stands, often found in wetland areas.
The state has conducted some aerial surveys, and landowners have reported several cedar forests flattened by Sandy's winds, which gusted up to 89 miles an hour. Some aerial checks have been made at Double Trouble State Park, part of the Pinelands in Ocean County.(Edward Colimore)
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130224_Sandy_Victims__Stately_Cedars.html
