Official Site of The State of New Jersey

A: No, a number of environmental groups have reviewed and commented on the plan. Many concerns have been taken into consideration and the plans modified accordingly.

Read the Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s support for this project.

A: The area of forest proposed for this project has a long history of major wildfires, including the Bass River Fire of 1977 which killed four firefighters. The project area serves as an important corridor to control large wildfires before fire gets into complex wildland urban interfaces (places where structures and forests meet) to the east, which are more risky and dangerous places to control wildfire. Most recently, a wildfire in 1999 primed the area for regeneration of the current and tremendous tree density.

Historically, wind-driven wildfires in the Pine Barrens travel from west to east. There are human resources (homes, buildings, infrastructure) at risk to the east of the project area, including the Garden State Parkway, Bass River State Forest’s swimming area and campground, privately owned campgrounds and the Nugentown section of Little Egg Harbor Township. There are also natural resources at risk including regenerating Atlantic white cedar restoration sites from the early 2000s and historic Atlantic white cedar populated drainages, which store significant amounts of carbon.

A: Trees to be removed are selected based on their risk of spreading southern pine bark beetle and/or acting as ladder fuels (carrying fire from the ground to the forest canopy), and not for their commercial value. The trees in the project area are small, averaging less than two inches in diameter. It is not anticipated that any material of commercial value will be produced because of this project.

The majority of trees being cut will remain on site as they will likely be cut and mowed using a forestry mower. The mower will mow or chip up these small trees and leave the tree material on site to be cycled back into the soil. Due to the extreme density of trees within portions of the Allen and Oswego Road Fire Mitigation and Habitat Restoration Project some areas will need to be managed by hand. This will require personnel to go through on foot and manually complete the thinning. Further steps in the project will include conducting prescribed burns at these sites which will assist with nutrient cycling and help to maintain these areas in a more typical pinelands forest condition.

A: The Forest Service included the use of herbicide in the application to the Pinelands Commission in the event herbicide is needed to ensure the project’s success. Herbicide would be used to control plant regeneration, for managing invasive species. The Forest Service will only use herbicide if needed and only in specific spots within the site where invasive or competing vegetation threatens the project’s success and other methods of control are unsuccessful. It is hoped that herbicide use will not be necessary at all, but it is included in the approved application to protect against a potential worst-case scenario to be able to respond quickly and effectively to conditions impacting the success of the activity.

If herbicide treatment is necessary, the Forest Service will be using herbicides which are designed to not travel through soil and contaminate ground water. Herbicide would be applied by licensed pesticide applicators specifically trained in the use of herbicides and pesticides for forestry applications. Additionally, all herbicide use will occur according to the product’s label, adhering to the laws and strict standards set forth by the NJ Bureau of Pesticide Control.

A: The project area experienced a wildfire in 1999 that stimulated and allowed for regeneration of the current very high tree densities. The resulting forest density is approximately four times the average number of trees per acre occurring in the Pinelands today. Plot measurements of trees reveal that the average number of trees per acre in the Pinelands is roughly 500 trees per acre as of 2019. However, measurements in the section of Bass River State Forest proposed for thinning indicate that there are approximately 2,000 trees per acre.

A: The project will result in different tree densities, forest structures and habitat types that will offer protection, covering and a variety of foraging areas for different species.

A: Sensitive forest and wetland areas will be buffered from the thinning and firebreak management activities. No active management will take place in the buffer and the forest will remain dense and difficult to access, protecting these areas from illegal off-road vehicle use and damage.

A: Across the entire project area, over a period of years, it is possible that the total number of trees removed could be significant. However, the majority of those trees are young and very small (under 2” diameter). Many of the trees that will be removed can never reach full size due to the current stagnant conditions (extreme densities and lack of available resources like water and sunlight) in which they are growing.

BACKGROUND: The area of the project experienced a wildfire in 1999 that stimulated and allowed for regeneration of the current tremendous tree densities. The resulting forest density is approximately four times the average number of trees per acre occurring in the Pinelands today. Plot measurements of trees reveal that the average number of trees per acre in the Pinelands is roughly 500 trees per acre as of 2019. However, measurements in the section of Bass River State Forest proposed for thinning indicate that there are approximately 2,000 trees per acre.

Therefore, across the entire project area, over a period of years, it is possible that the total number of trees thinned could be significant. Simply looking at numbers of trees provides a dramatic perspective yet the number of trees to be removed is less important than the amount of growing space that these trees occupy. The selection of trees to be removed is a function of not only their number, but their size, position in the forest, and the risks they pose by being susceptible to bark beetles and their potential to carry wildfire from the ground to the forest canopy. Additionally, these are trees that haven’t realized and won’t achieve their growing potential due to the competition they face by growing alongside a high density of similarly sized trees, trees at formative stages (i.e., saplings or young stages of tree growth).

A: The area will be thinned in phases over a period of years based on the forest’s response to each treatment, allowing for some of the carbon lost through thinning to be re-captured by increased growth rates from the trees remaining on site. Trees to be thinned from the stand average less than two inches in diameter. Since the trees to be thinned from the site are smaller than the average for the stand, they contribute a comparatively small proportion of carbon to the overall stand, especially relative to the risks their excessive numbers pose from a bark beetle infestation or wildfire occurrence to both the area to be thinned and the adjacent forest.

Read more in the approved Pinelands Application for this project.

A: No, this is a forest thinning meaning most of the growth of the forest after the activity occurs in the trees that remain on the site, not from a new generation of trees. To learn more about the types of thinning being implemented in this project click here.

A: Southern pine beetle is one of the most destructive insect pests of pine trees. Outbreaks occur and flourish in dense forests, much like in the current conditions along Allen and Oswego Roads in Bass River State Forest. Once a susceptible host (often a stressed pine tree) is located, pine beetles release a pheromone attracting additional beetles. If enough beetles are attracted, the host tree is successfully colonized as well as adjacent pines. Attacking beetles bore into the bark and lay eggs and once hatched, larvae and adults move through the bark to feed and chew exit holes. Once reemerged, adults can fly and attack new trees.

Research shows, forest management through thinning is the preferred tool to increase tree health and vigor and reduce the likelihood of a southern pine bark beetle infestation and outbreak which would ultimately kill a large swath of forest.

A: The proposed activities are designed to avoid irreversible adverse impacts on habitats that are critical to the survival of any local populations of threatened and endangered animal species and irreversible adverse impacts on the survival of any local populations of threatened and endangered plant species.

To avoid potential irreversible adverse impacts on any threatened or endangered avian species that may be present, visual surveys will be conducted to identify and mark any trees containing potential threatened and endangered avian species cavities or nests. Any identified and marked trees will not be removed.

To avoid any irreversible adverse impacts on habitats that are critical to the survival of any local populations of threatened and endangered snake species, the forest management activities and the creation of the forest firebreak shall only occur between April 15 to November 15, the period when the concerned snake species are no longer hibernating.

To avoid potential irreversible adverse impacts on the survival of any local populations of Pine Barrens treefrog, a 100-foot buffer shall be maintained between the proposed forestry and proposed forest firebreak to potential Pine Barrens treefrog breeding habitat.

A: The approved New Jersey Pinelands Commission permit is valid for 10 years from the approval date of October 14, 2022. Therefore, any forest management, firebreak construction and road maintenance activity proposed in the approved application can occur within this 10-year period.

Forest management activities will occur in two phases, the first being at the beginning of the permit cycle and the second near the end of the permit cycle. After the thinnings take place at the beginning of the permit cycle, the forests will be continuously monitored and assessed. Towards the end of the permit cycle, if there are trees in the previously thinned areas that are beginning to show that they are more dominant than others, then a second thinning will occur in the same manner as the first.

A: Within the 10 years following the low and from below forest management activity, the forest will share some characteristics with its appearance today, however suppressed and smaller trees will have been removed allowing the residual trees to grow without significant wind damage and the canopy will have remained mostly intact with some small openings having slowly filled. Any slash or tree material left on the ground will have mostly decomposed or been burned providing nutrients to the residual trees. The treatment areas will have significantly less trees per acre, however trees will have increased in size and begun to show dominance, so much so that it will nearly be time for another low and from below thinning.

After 20 years from the time of the first thinning and 10 years from the time of the second thinning, all canopy trees will have improved in growth and vigor, in addition to resistance from disturbance agents like insects and disease.

In 40 years from now, significant growth will be apparent in the residual canopy trees which will have increased in size.

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