On May 30 an editorial of ours ran in the Star Ledger calling

on Governor Murphy to make appointments to the Highlands Council.

Despite a new Governor and new leadership at the Highlands Council, with three Christie appointed opponents of the Highlands still active on the Highlands Council, the Council has not been able to regain the momentum it lost when Governor Christie maneuvered to undermine it.

We had been pressing the Governor ever since he was elected to move on appointments. We had attended meetings with his staff and there was considerable correspondence between us.

The same day the editorial ran we received a call from the Governor’s office requesting a meeting. On June 7, we met with the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff and the Director of Appointments. It was a very positive meeting and we were assured appointments would be made swiftly.

Still, no appointments have been made. What’s up Governor?

It was a very positive meeting and we were assured appointments would be made swiftly. Still, no appointments have been made. What’s up Governor?

We had been strong supporters of the bill that was recently signed into law allowing municipalities, or groups of municipalities, to create stormwater utilities. Unmanaged stormwater is the primary cause of surface water pollution in New Jersey. This was all too perfectly illustrated recently with the closing of Lake Hoptacong to swimming over the Fourth of July weekend—normally their busiest weekend of the summer— due to harmful algae blooms (HAB). Record rainfalls in the last month, combined with inadequate stormwater management and summer heat created the perfect conditions for HAB.

255 sq. mile core forest of the Highlands Preservation Area

Just prior to the outbreak, District 24 Legislators, whose district include some of the towns on the Lake, had pressed towns to pass resolutions affirming never to participate in a stormwater utility.

Dense development around the Lake, coupled with inadequate and poorly maintained stormwater

management systems all but guarantee that HABs will continue to plague the Lake, reducing property values and crippling the businesses that rely on recreational use of the Lake. Effective stormwater management costs money. A stormwater utility is the only effective solution because it equitably raises the necessary funds to install meaningful stormwater controls. We are actively pursuing outreach opportunities in the Lake Hopatcong communities, to educate the public, business interests and officials on the benefits of creating a regional stormwater utility.

Does the Highlands Act provide adequate protections for Highlands forests now that we are beginning to understand the value the Highlands mature forests provide in mitigating the impacts of climate change? We will be exploring this issue over the coming months. The core forest of the Highlands, approximately 255 square miles of dense woods, located north of I-80, from Ramapo Mt. in the east, to Sparta and Hamburg Mountains in the west, continues to be reduced in size and quality because of activities exempted from DEP regulations.

Over the last two years an ecologically disastrous forest stewardship project has pitted the environmental community and ecologists against the Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Fish & Wildlife. What was at stake was an 18.5 acre tract of forest inside the Sparta Mountain WMA. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Silvia Solaun and the Friends of Sparta Mountain (FoSM), we were successful in further reducing the size of this project to 12.5 acres total, thus saving an area of mature forest to the NE of the stand that was known to be habitat for Barred Owls and a rare species of orchid. 

This past spring work commenced on Stand 18. Now that it’s almost concluded, we caught up with Silvia and asked her for an update.

What is the current situation on Stand 18 and is there a timeline for next steps?

Silvia: We've visited Stand 18 with members of the Highlands Coalition Natural Heritage Committee numerous times to document how destructive these stewardship projects are. It’s really impossible to describe how drastic a change this area has undergone, from being a healthy, age-diverse forest to an opening in the forest torn apart by heavy machinery. The area is now devastated and the soil on the site severely disturbed with rutting sometimes several feet deep, and many smaller trees cut down because they were in the way.

Tree tops, and slash stacked in an attempt to cover the ruts created by the heavy machinery used on Stand 18.

They significantly widened the access road to the Stand, pushing huge amounts of dirt into wetlands areas and exposing large areas of bare soil that is now vulnerable to invasive species.

We are documenting all of this and will be investigating with experts whether any of this damage constitutes a violation of the original Forest Plan, as well as publicizing what this terrible “stewardship” project looks like on our public lands!

Have these site visits yielded any new data about the age or health of the stand?

Yes. One thing we can thank the loggers for is our ability to count tree rings on the stumps of trees that were cut down and confirm what we already knew; that the trees on Sparta Mountain are not stuck in “middle age.” Of the samples we’ve analyzed, the ages range from 70-150 years, and interestingly the rings also tell us that for many of the trees cut down the last few years were their healthiest and show the fastest growth. After years of competing, some of these trees were finally able to release, which has big implications for their capacity to sequester carbon dioxide. 

Members the NJ HC Natural Heritage Committee conducting an environmental inventory of the tree species on Stand 18 before the work started.

What are you hoping for the future? 

We have always stated that public lands in New Jersey belong to all of us, and it is appalling to see them managed for specific interests - either to create habitat for game species or the sale of timber. There is no accountability or oversight of these activities. It is our hope that using all the evidence and the experience of what has happened on Sparta Mountain, we can have influence over future projects that involve this type of forest management. We want to persuade DEP to reconsider in favor of true restorative stewardship. We cannot afford to log the last remaining intact forest that exists in the New Jersey Highlands.

Destruction caused as a result of widening the access road to Stand 18 to allow huge trucks into the forest to collect the timber.

The NJ Highlands Coalition is advancing a new paradigm for forestry where forests are managed for restoration and the intrinsic ecological value of intact forests for the ecosystem services, and mitigation of climate change they provide.

For more information about our vision for forestry in the Highlands check out our Policy Recommendations for Forest Stewardship on Public Lands, that we are presenting to different stakeholders in Trenton and throughout the Highlands.