DEP Might As Well Pave The Logging Road In Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area
Private Logging Contractors Can Not Be Trusted To Comply With Unenforceable Terms Of A Contract
No DEP Regulations – No DEP Permits To Enforce Gross Violations
Take a look at these photos: (provided courtesy of NJ Forest Watch, the first taken on 3/11/25 and the second on 3/12/25):
The first photo shows deep rutting, but at least the natural soils and vegetation are present, as the old unused logging road is recovering and will at some future point in time be converted to forest.
The second photo shows gravel. The soils and vegetation are destroyed, the vegetation will not grow back, and it invites and provides access to illegal off road four wheelers and illegal dumping (violations I documented long ago, see:
I’ll track down the specific document and language (no pun intended), but I recall reading either a DEP contract or the DEP Forest Management Plan. It casually mentioned that the contractor would conduct a very limited application of gravel at the point where the existing paved road cul de sacs and meets the old long abandoned forest road.
The objective and very limited use of gravel was to avoid rutting and off site tracking of soils from logging trucks at the intersection of the old abandoned road and the paved road.
The use of gravel depicted in the photo is an obvious violation of this limited use.
But there is no permit for DEP to enforce.
There are no regulations for DEP to enforce.
The rutting must be repaired, the gravel must all be removed, damaged vegetation replanted, and the site fully restored to initial conditions
But the only thing DEP has is a logging contract! Good luck with “enforcing” that! (and probably no performance bond or escrow account to fund damages).
This is another example of how the DEP is mismanaging NJ’s forest.
This is another example of why stronger laws and regulations and permits must be mandated for any destructive activity in NJ’s forests and why logging forests is totally inappropriate.