NJ Proposed Forest Management Plans Are Anything But!

FLAWED NJ_Forest Management Plan is Anything But! We Need Mature Trees Now More Than Ever.

As concerned citizens should be urging NJDEP/Governor Murphy to stop the passage of the series of Bills (S-2001/ A-3086, S-3549/ A-4843, S-3550/ A-4844, S-3547/ A-4845 and S-3548/ A-4846) concerning forest stewardship on New Jersey’s public lands.
These Bills do nothing to safeguard the future of New Jersey’s forests. In fact, taken together these Bills threaten to undermine the success of forest preservation in New Jersey over the last 60 years by enabling timber extraction from our public forests under the guise of conservation and excluding local authorities and the public from land use decisions. This is an abuse of the public trust under which these lands were acquired.
I would like to see the NJ Legislature support and expand state reforestation initiatives, and restore the ecological diversity in our intact forests by seriously addressing the documented threats impacting them, and enhancing forests’ capacity to combat climate change.
After listening to the NJ Forest Plan Forum on January 25th 2022; Contentions of Grievance against these severely flawed Forest Management; Tree Extraction, Lumber Extraction, Business deals sponsored by Tax-dollars are in complete violation of the Public Trust and manifest as a Teapot Dome Scandal of Corruption in our Political System.

Forest were already cutdown 3 times before the Civil War.

We need to leave the mature trees and yes plant new ones; and Stop extracting fossil fuels and advance into a slower sustainable ecological economy that benefits all life..Extraction of detritus matter aka coal, oil, gas; billions of years of carbon sequestration in cosmic minutes aka last 300.5 Billion years; how can this accelerated throw back of carbon to the biosphere not cause climate change; and other pollution from it's conversions..plastic pollution alone is a form of climate change degradation..as we continue to convert nature into capital in a senseless economy to nowhere as if economy exist outside the laws of nature in a vacuum..Godzilla is the Fossil Fuel Monster of Unsustainable economy to Nowhere..

Without Trees and plants no animals including "we the people" would exist. 3-billion plus years of photosynthesis to get 21% oxygen; then animals appear. Carbon sequestration from the atmosphere to reach a dynamic equilibrium. More energy in than out..All this technology; yet we fail to see how nature works?

New Jersey needs to manage invasive plant species such as barberry, knotweed ,and burning bush in our remaining forest. New Jersey needs to manage stormwater, and its impacts resulting in Harmful algal blooms, and single-use plastic production and pollution abounding everywhere.

The Present NJ Forest Management Plans are business deals not ecologically sound management in any sense of the science. The contention of creating habitat for a warbler using heavy equipment in the realm of a maturing recovering forest is absurd. Sparta Mountain Stands as an example of misguided or intentional insult to the science of ecology and the present Climate Change Reality. NJ has plenty of other potential habitats of fields and broken forest to accommodate any warblers that may be still habitué in our latitudes and realm..

How does one create habitat for the Yellow-winged-warbler? By using a bulldozer and other heavy equipment via a private contractor?! Absurd! Corrupt!..

Nature makes us great; because it sustains and provides for us free of charge through its self-organization complexities. It's remaining remnants require our appreciation and recognition.. Part of nature, not apart from nature. Strange how we can speak of Billions & Trillions of dollars, but not comprehend these numbers in years or epochs before we got here?!

NJ Love it or Leave it Alone.
After listening to the NJ Forest Plan Forum on January 25th 2022; Contentions of Grievance against these severely flawed Forest Management; Tree Extraction, Lumber Extraction, Business deals sponsored by Tax-dollars are in complete violation of the Public Trust and manifest as a Teapot Dome Scandal of Corruption in our Political System.

Beyond Compromise 2022.
Although Senator Bob Smith has proposed a Committee Panel for the NJ State Senate Environment and Energy Committee to address this issue his analogy stated that day 1/25/22; with the past controversy of NJ-Beach "access" is to me inappropriate. It's implying forest management aka logging still has a place in NJ. even though it's outside the laws of science concerning forest ecology; and many of the forest plans reasoning are outside the actual conditions existing within NJ. There can be no compromise with these logging forest management flawed plan. In fact they have had their day; and have in fact injured in their allowance to have already occurred; Sparta Mountain stands as a violation of all sound ecological science of Forest Complex Systems of emerging "self organization "and possible positive emergent properties.
The Sparta Mountain fiasco was beyond compromise in its breach of the Public Trust violated by State Executive Power in using public resources for private interest and short-term economic benefits to unknown sources. These sources did not operate with conscience disciplines or proper monitoring by State Officials. These forces of secession from the Public Trust and Sound Ecological Knowledge/Science have been allowed enough. No Compromise with them be forthcoming from any committee.

The absurdity of using Heavy Equipment to create habitat for a Yellow-Winged-Warbler and in a recognized Natural Preserve
The "one species" theme of management allowance to destroy Sparta Mountain Preserve, when known threatened and endangered species reside; stands as the greatest example of the sanctioned ignorance alienated from "Real Forest Ecology".
This lack of Wisdom in disfranchising other life-form present in the bio-diversity of the ecology is telling..These Management Type Plans increase entropy; simplifying complex systems now recurring with NJ Resurgent Forest during the Climate Change Realities further weakening our planets biosphere.

Yale School Of Forestry Would Not agree with the Rutgers Testimony in Support of these flawed plans. One must ask; are Pay to Play or will be Paid after we Play elements involved here?

But we have to recognize that there’s a distinction between industrial production forests and natural forests, and we must make clear that natural forests are managed for biodiversity and the full set of ecosystem services that forests provide. And, by the way, which biodiversity are we shortest of? The biodiversity that’s associated with older forests. We hardly have any older forests left in the Lower 48 states. It’s in the small single digits of our original forests. The Forest Service says that less than 7 percent of U.S. forests are over 100 years old. (US Forest Service)

There is no waste in a forest. Disturbance is the enemy of Forest Biodiversity Integrity.
Obsolete Reactions Deserve No Compromise. One important factor that fosters species richness is a stable physical environment. Nature through the phenomena of self-organization already does its own management.

Our seeing forest in the 21st century as lumber rather than sustainable bastions of biodiversity is an obsolete reaction, and a violation of the Public Trust. Our Society and educational system requires a Paradigm shift.Paradigm shifts arise when the dominant paradigm under which normal science operates is rendered incompatible with new phenomena....things that neither the proposed paradigm nor the dominant paradigm are capable of solving currently.

With Climate Change and the massive loss of planetary biodiversity and forest world wide older mature forest and trees themselves have never been more significant and needed.One important factor that fosters species richness is a stable physical environment. Human disturbances including extraction of mature trees, (with heavy equipment most likely contaminated) will injure the species richness; and spread harmful invasives like barberry and knotweed among others into the remaining still indigenous american landscapes remaining here in New Jersey

We all live in a complex biological system. Mitochondria in the cell, cell in the organism, the organism in the ecosystem, the ecosystem in the biosphere. This complex world of biological cooperation is being injured and destroyed, along with a future worth living; this is now the legacy of degraded life we are passing on to our children.

New Jersey not anyplace else Is NJ-Audubon now some rogue infiltrated vehicle of business interest compromised or corrupting our Public Trust Resources?
The Management Plans opposing Sound Forest Ecology by NJ- Audubon and other elements, are not specific to the actual conditions existing in the NJ Forest; which should also be obvious. They are hypothetical ploys to justify some economic interest. for example: North New Jersey has no history of forest fires. The fact that invasive species are mildly treated, and the fact of this pretended care of our recurring forest in a State that has no Exotic Plants Sales Bans; is also revealing in their caring suddenly for forest management..

NJ-Love it or Leave it Alone..
It is my opinion that our State of New Jersey is still suffering from the past reign of Governor Christie, who while in office for 8-years demised unjustly and weakened through legislation the Highlands & Pinelands Protections. Many of his actions remain; (including appointees on the Highlands Council); despite Governor Murphy's allegation of Climate Change recognition and making NJ resilient and sustainable these weakening instead or strengthening remain.

Sincerely..