THREAT LOOMS OVER NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENS

[bach2yoga]

THREAT LOOMS OVER NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENS

Date: 5 Dec 2003
From: "Troy Ettel" {tettel@njaudubon.org}

Home to globally rare ecological communities, 850 species of plants
and over 350 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, the
New Jersey Pine Barrens is truly a unique, biological treasure.

While most Pine Barrens communities are dependent upon periodic
disturbance in the form of fire to maintain their ecological
integrity, severe and abrupt change that disrupts ecosystem processes
is not well tolerated.

Conversion of the native forests of the Pine Barrens to intensively
managed pine plantations, crops of trees where unwanted or undesirable
vegetation is strictly controlled, is just such an example. Throughout
the southeastern United States, natural pine communities have been
devastated by commercial forestry that seeks to 'improve' upon native
pine forests by converting them to pine plantations, essentially
managed as row crops, just like corn or soybeans.

The biodiversity impacts and damages to ecosystems of the Southeast
have been devastating as acreages devoted to pine plantations have
increased from 2 million to over 30 million acres in the past 50
years, an increase of 1500%. The loss of millions of acres of natural
pine communities has forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list
a number of plants and animals dependent on those communities on the
federal Endangered Species List. Many more have been listed on the
threatened and endangered list of individual southeastern states.

Now this threat looms over the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Plantation
forestry is being promoted on private lands in the Pine Barrens as a
way to improve the economic output of upland habitats.

Currently, one prominent landowner in the region has initiated
conversion of natural pine forest into pine plantation, while another
permit application to the Pinelands Commission pending approval also
seeks to introduce this type of intensive, row crop forestry. For more
information on this threat including its impacts to native plant
communities, soil, and wildlife please visit
http://www.njaudubon.org/Conservation/opinmain.html.

New Jersey Audubon Society (NJAS) and the Pinelands Preservation
Alliance (PPA) generally support ecological restoration and
maintenance of New Jersey's forestland. NJAS and PPA acknowledge
societal demands for timber management and harvest to produce wood
products such as lumber and paper, but firmly believe that timber
harvest should be conducted only where sound, sustainable, ecological
management practices are followed. NJAS and PPA do not support
unsustainable forestry practices that are harmful to the long-term
health of forest ecosystems.

NJAS and PPA are strongly opposed to the conversion of large tracts
of native pine forest in the New Jersey Pine Barrens to pine
plantations. These plantations destroy the native plant communities of
sites where they are established and convert them to monocultures of a
single pine or pine-hybrid species planted in rows that superficially
resemble row crop agriculture like corn. For this reason, NJAS and PPA
believe that conversion of native pine forest in the Pine Barrens to
pine plantations is in direct conflict with the Comprehensive
Management Plan for the Pinelands National Preserve which states that
"[a]ll silvicultural and reforestation practices [in the Pinelands]
shall serve to maintain native Pinelands forest types, including those
that are locally characteristic, except on those parcels where other
forest types exist." NJA.C. 7:50-6.45(a).

NJAS and PPA are deeply concerned about the impacts of pine
plantations on overall forest health and on populations of threatened,
endangered, and declining species

* * *

Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship
New Jersey Audubon Society
POB 693
11 Hardscrabble Road
Bernardsville, New Jersey 07924
Phone: 908.766.5787 ext 17 Fax: 908.766.7775
Website: http://www.njaudubon.org/conservation

 

[BarryC]

Yes. For the benefit of those who weren't there with us, what we saw on the road from Eagle Tavern to Apple Pie Hill is an example of this. It's the Lee Brothers' Tree Plantation. When we were there it was just cleared ground. Nothing had been planted yet.
What they do is clear all existing vegetation and put down herbicides later to kill whatever grows up naturally. So all that is allowed to grow is the trees they plant. There's no understory, no shrub layer, no mosses, nothing. And the Lee Brothers' plantation amounts to probably a couple of thousand acres. It's in the area north of Speedwell and of the Eagle Tavern site, and west of 563.
Barry

THREAT LOOMS OVER NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENS

Date: 5 Dec 2003
From: "Troy Ettel" {tettel@njaudubon.org}

Home to globally rare ecological communities, 850 species of plants
and over 350 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, the
New Jersey Pine Barrens is truly a unique, biological treasure.

While most Pine Barrens communities are dependent upon periodic
disturbance in the form of fire to maintain their ecological
integrity, severe and abrupt change that disrupts ecosystem processes
is not well tolerated.

Conversion of the native forests of the Pine Barrens to intensively
managed pine plantations, crops of trees where unwanted or undesirable
vegetation is strictly controlled, is just such an example. Throughout
the southeastern United States, natural pine communities have been
devastated by commercial forestry that seeks to 'improve' upon native
pine forests by converting them to pine plantations, essentially
managed as row crops, just like corn or soybeans.

 

[bach2yoga]

Bill Haines is planning the same thing. There was a meeting recently about this, I wish I could have made it.
Renee

 

[BEHR655]

I've seen the Lee Brother's site and it does look ugly now. Where is Haines' property?

Steve

 

[bach2yoga]

I am not sure of all of his properties, perhaps someone else knows. I do know that he is a substantial owner, and that he has been in process of buying Sim Place as well through a foreclosure.
Renee

 

[bach2yoga]

Steve,
This is an excerpt from an article I posted early in November.

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t761-.phtml
The Pinelands Forest Technical Subcommittee approved the Lee Brothers plan.

A second example of a potentially harmful forestry operation is described in the forest management plan created for Haines and Haines, Inc. Haines and Haines is seeking to enroll approximately 9,000 acres in the Forest Stewardship program. The Haines plan identifies seven stands, and anticipates forestry activity on approximately 1,600 acres within the seven stands. The treatment scheduled for Stand One provides an example of a potentially incompatible forestry practice.

Stand One is described as made up primarily of mature, poor quality, moderately stocked pitch pine, with an understory of dense scrub oak, blueberry and laurel. The pine trees range in size from 4"-20" dbh and 20-55 feet in height, with a stem density of approximately 206 TAP.

The treatment anticipated for Stand One includes harvesting 1,000 acres using a combination of seed tree, shelterwood and clear-cut harvests, drum chopping and root raking to maximize exposure of the mineral soil, herbicide treatment, and replanting to achieve a 700 – 800 TPA density. Again, the goal is to remove the existing forest community and replace it with a "fully stocked" pine stand.

The Haines management plan lists seven general stewardship objectives. Maintenance of locally characteristic, native Pinelands forests is not listed as a stewardship objective. Practicing intensive forestry to produce wood and wood products is listed. Haines & Haines plan at 2. Maintenance of the native locally characteristic forest does not appear to be mentioned anywhere in the forest management plan.

The Pinelands Forest Technical Subcommittee has not yet approved the Haines plan.

 

[bach2yoga]

FORESTRY PLAN WILL HURT PINELANDS, CONSERVATIONISTS SAY

Date: 031216
From: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ocean/

By Derek Harper, Staff Writer, (609) 272-7203
Press of Atlantic City, December 15, 2003

Bass River Township - Deep in the Pine Barrens, conservationists fear
a company might be trying to turn part of the pinelands forest into a
farm-raised stand of nonnative trees, while the owners say the forest
is dangerously overgrown from years of protection and needs to be
trimmed back.

For the past three years, the Pinelands Commission has reviewed an
application that conservationists say, among other things, would turn
a 1,000-acre tract in the heart of the ecologically diverse forest
into a sterile, monotonous stand of hybrid pines to be used for
industry.

The tract being considered is around Chatsworth, and is owned by
cranberry growers Haines & Haines.

"The experience you have with this plantation-style forestry is you
lose the biological diversity the forest provides with the plant
species and the animal species that grow there," said Carlton Mont-
gomery, president of the Pemberton-based Pinelands Preservation
Alliance.

That could lead to heightened vulnerability to pests and disease, he
said.

But the applicant's defenders point out that the pinelands have
rebounded from far worse, whether it be massive clearcutting,
horrendous fires or an array of invasive, unnatural tree species. They
say the preservationists' fears are overblown.

"(Environmentalists) think (Haines & Haines) are going to turn the
pinelands into a nursery. I don't see that," said Robert Williams, who
runs Land Dimensions in Glassboro. "I don't see that making a living."

Haines & Haines hired Williams to draft their forestry plan.

The Pinelands Commission has been reviewing the application since
Haines & Haines filed it in 2000, said Francis Rapa, spokesman for the
commission. Forestry is historically permitted in the Pinelands.

Companies are required to file plans with the commission that say
what they intend to do with their land.

Of Haines & Haines' approximately 10,000 acres, about a dozen tracts
totaling 1,052 acres are getting this treatment. The tracts are mainly
southwest of Bear Swamp Hill, south of Chatsworth in Burlington
County.

In late November, the commission asked Haines & Haines for more
information about their plans for replanting the forest with a hybrid
pitch-loblolly pine tree, Rapa said.

The commission requires people to "maintain the native pinelands
forest type," according to the guidelines. While loblollies are native
to much of southern New Jersey, Rapa said the commission wondered if
the hybrid was suitable.

The commission also questioned how the land would be prepared for the
trees post-cutting, he said. The company planned to use spiked drums
to churn the forest floor, rake away extraneous roots, replant and use
herbicides to control stray plants.

The commission gets about 20 to 25 forestry applications annually,
Rapa said. They propose all manner of cutting and regrowth plans. The
commission takes them and compares them to generally accepted
standards for cutting, planning and regrowth.

While many get decided in several months, Rapa said the commission is
still reviewing applications filed in 1995.

But some forestry experts wonder what the fuss is about.

Williams believes the company won't ultimately fulfill the proposed
plan.

Besides, he argued, the forest was overprotected and had very little
early-stage growth needed by some pinelands inhabitants.

Historically, people have cut trees throughout the pinelands, whether
for charcoal, cedars for roofs and logs, said Thomas F. Bullock, Esq.,
president of the New Jersey Forestry Association.

However, there are very little financial rewards for it any longer,
he said. Massive mills elsewhere churn out the nation's paper
products, leaving less desire for New Jersey's Pine Barrens.

The pinelands have been repeatedly cut by people seeking trees,
Bullock said, whether it they were clear-cutting acres or bringing in
outside species in the 1930s.

Bullock downplayed the drum chopping: "that's little more than
scuffing up the dirt" that would help the other species grow.

Root raking was dismissed as replicating a fire going through. And it
would only make financial sense to use the herbicides once early on to
allow the pine trees a head start on the other species.

"You can't spend $20 an acre if you are only going to get $10 out of
them," Bullock said.

William S. Haines Jr. - the latest of four generations of Haineses
who have spent more than 100 years harvesting cranberries in what is
now the largest cranberry farm in the state - was taken off guard by
the criticism.

"We live here, we have a reputation of caring for the land and we
intend to do that in any enterprise we enter," Haines said.

He said he believed he was clearing out a dangerously overgrown
forest with a potential for disastrous fires. Any financial benefits
are decades in the future, long after his death.

Haines is "truly a Pinelands steward," Williams said. "This is not
about the timber and 'I want to sell the trees.' This is about
perpetuating the landscape and the forest around them."

* * *