This Is What DEP Wants The Pinelands To Look Like

Contact Gov. Murphy And Demand That He Veto DEP’s Logging Plan

DEP Firemen Must Not Be Allowed To Determine The Fate Of NJ’s Public Forests

The photo above is of a “thinned” Pinelands forest deemed a “conservation” example in a presentation to the Pinelands Commission last spring by John Cecil, then chief forester at NJ Audubon, see:

•  Forest Conservation – NJ Pinelands

Mr. Cecil is now Assistant Commissioner for Parks and Forests at DEP – and this is what he wants Pinelands forests to look like – tame, un-wild, uniform, managed landscapes (a designated UN BioReserve treated with herbicides, no less).

I’ve seen more trees on a golf course.

And once this DEP “thinning” “forest management” model is allowed to happen in the Pinelands – and the DEP’s methodology for climate analysis of carbon storage and sequestration – it then becomes  the model for the rest of the State (and not just for forests, but also DEP’s “Climate PACT” and REAL land use permit regulations). The DEP’s sham rationale as a pretext for logging just shifts from preventing wildfires, to promoting diverse healthy young forests, or to providing wildlife habitat (similar threats are already underway in the NJ Highlands hardwood forests).

So, the current controversy over the Pinelands Commission’s approval of DEP’s “Forest Management Plan” is not some esoteric debate – the fate of our forests is in the balance.

At a time of climate emergency, when our forests must all be preserved and expanded to store carbon, it is literally insane to be logging trees.

But this forest massacre can be stopped – under the NJ Pinelands Act, the Gov. is given the power to block any action of the Pinelands Commission by vetoing the minutes of the Commission. But the clock is ticking: This veto must come before the end of November.

So, please, contact Gov. Murphy and demand that he veto the Minutes of the Pinelands Commission to block implementation of this DEP plan – or else be prepared to see more of THIS!.

Here’s a side by side photos of the “thinning” DEP supports (from Cecil’s presentation to the Pinelands Commission) – which forest do you prefer???