Thanks to Lee Procida of the Press of Atlantic City for the fine coverage of last night's NJOA council meeting!
Ant

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/183/story/238416.html

Sportsmen groups learn about forest management
By LEE PROCIDA Staff Writer, 609-457-8707

Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2008


JACKSON TOWNSHIP - As the sun started to set behind the tall pine trees in the distance Monday night, tour guide John Burkle hopped on his tractor and started pulling a trailer full of sportsmen and forest management enthusiasts through the woods.
Most of the men on Burkle's tour Monday at the state Department of Environmental Protection's Forest Resource Education Center were from the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance. The NJOA recently passed its first anniversary as an organization of hunters, trappers and anglers that aims to lobby the state legislature to make their voices heard.

Anthony Mauro, chairman of the organization, said he started the organization last summer with other sportsmen in response to legislation that would restrict hunting in the state. He said the NJOA now brings together groups and clubs of sportspeople in order to form one political voice.

Mauro brought his group to Jackson on Monday to get a tour of the center and see examples of forest management on the site. The NJOA advocates a conservation rather than preservation, drawing a sharp distinction between the two. Burkle invited the groups to take the tour to learn more about what goes on at the center.

At the first stop Burkle, a forester with the DEP, turned off the tractor and turned around in his seat.

"You'll see over here we thinned these trees," Burkle said, pointing to stand of trees with several feet in between each other and low grass on the ground.

"And over there is what it would look like unthinned," he said, pointing to another patch of forest across the parking lot with trees bunched up and thick bushes of blueberries in between.

Burkle pointed to the first, thinned group of trees as a perfect habitat for quail. The fact that the state restricts such thinning raised the ire of Joe Matter, a representative from the New Jersey Quail Project and director of special projects for the NJOA.

Much of the reason the NJOA's members are interested in forestry is they believe simply buying large blocks of forests and leaving them untouched actually hurts the habitat, shielding it from natural processes that create better ecosystems for wildlife and the plants themselves.

Mauro and Matter, in agreement with most of the people on the tour, say the state is not helping the forests by buying the open space and leaving it sit, and they also believe their voices have not been heard.

"But now we go the NJOA, so now we've got a force to fight," Matter proclaimed from his wooden seat on the trailer.

Through the rest of the tour, Burkle showed different areas to demonstrate what he said the forest should look like, with patches of young pine trees growing and other sections where a car could easily drive through the trees.

"After European settlement, these forests were used and abused," Burkle said, explaining that the forests we see now are merely regrown after being clear-cut long ago. "If they weren't cut, they were burnt, and if they weren't burnt, they were cut."

At the end of the tour Burkle stopped at a small saw mill with a mechanized saw where he cuts logs he harvested from the area and makes 2x4s, which are used at the site.

Mauro and Matter talked as Burkle cut through a large log, explaining their hope that the NJOA will show the state that managing forests can be beneficial to several groups.

"Oh, can you smell that cedar?" Matter said as he walked to get back on the trailer.

"Smells good, doesn't it?" Mauro replied.

E-mail Lee Procida:

LProcida@pressofac.com