By John Cecil
By Aug. 19, Gov. Chris Christie has an important decision to make regarding the future of New Jersey’s forests. The Healthy Forests Act passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, requiring only his signature to become law.
Healthy forests provide numerous benefits, including diverse habitat for wildlife, water protection, soil conservation, air purification, carbon sequestration, wood products and more. New Jersey’s forests are under significant threats from fire exclusion, invasive species, pests, disease and overbrowsing by deer.
The forests also lack age diversity, which increases vulnerability to these threats. Less than 4 percent of our forests are younger than 19 years old, and less than 4 percent are older than 120. Forests less than 120 years old are middle-aged, lacking complexity and characteristics indicative of old growth.
Our middle-aged forests, 60 to 80 years old and the majority in the state, have much less biological diversity than old growth or young forests. Middle-aged forests typically experience elevated levels of stress from excessive inter-tree competition for light and nutrients, reducing resiliency to extreme weather, diseases and insect outbreaks.
Age balance is needed. The complexity of old growth forests is valuable to some wildlife species, but lacks habitat for others that require vegetation found only in young forests. As compared with young and old forests, the dense canopy of middle-aged forests shields out light and harbors the fewest plants, shrubs and trees in the understory.
Young forests sequester carbon and old forests mitigate erosion from stormwater better than middle-aged forests. Young forests in New Jersey are maturing at a rate where we will have no young forest left in New Jersey in about 10 years. A lack of disturbance contributes to the lack of age diversity, which would otherwise occur naturally.
Scientists agree that thinning, prescribed fire and harvesting are management tools able to help restore forest health. Research clearly indicates that, in some instances, such as in the absence of natural fires, we need to cut trees to stimulate the development of young, healthy, carbon-absorbing forests. The state’s Healthy Forests Act acknowledges that forests are not being managed effectively in New Jersey. This law will help New Jersey forests persist into the future, ensuring drinking water is clean, air is filtered, habitat is provided and that the effects of climate change are mitigated through the absorption of carbon.
Specifically, the law would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop a Forest Stewardship Program for state lands, then develop and implement plans that follow Forest Stewardship Council standards, the leading standards for forest management. Further, it calls for standards for using fire as a protection and stewardship technique.
The DEP has many important mandates, complicated by reduced budgets, declining numbers of staff and increased workload. Lost in the shuffle is the stewardship of forests and therefore neglect of a vital resource. Without the Healthy Forests Act, it’s business as usual, which over the past three decades has led to forests in decline.
The Healthy Forest Act has been broadly supported by the environmental, conservation and agricultural communities, as well as by sportsmen and sportswomen. Critics suggest this will clear trees in state forests and funnel profits into the state’s general fund and private interests. This is not true. Existing laws, including threatened and endangered species laws, and the DEP’s own rules and regulations, as well as regional protections in areas such as the Pinelands, will still apply.
Our forests contain value well beyond timber. Because of this, we support the Healthy Forests Act. The dire state of our forests compels active and responsible management, which comes at a financial cost. We believe this legislation forms a foundation for a means to offset management costs by responsibly harvesting a renewable resource.
Our forests are part of the public trust and our natural heritage. We ask the governor to act on behalf of current and future citizens of the state to ensure the resources we purchased are properly managed.
John Cecil is vice president for stewardship of New Jersey Audubon.