New Jersey State Forestry Services Lynn Fleming Director/State - - PDF document

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New Jersey

State Forestry Services

Lynn Fleming

Director/State Forester

www.whrc.org/mapping/nbcd/index.html

View entire nation’s cover:

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Personnel

• Vicky Young –retired
• Grants Administrator – retired
• Bureau Chief – temp. assignment
• Soon to retire – Jack Shuart
• Reassignment – Joe Bennett

PRIVATE LANDS

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Private Lands

• Annual USFS Stewardship reporting

– 5,279 landowners assisted – 14, 632 acres – FSI – 2,280 acres ‐ Stand Establishment ‐ – Sawtimber 4.86 M BF – Round wood 27,128 cords – Total harvest $2.7 M

Private Lands

• 2014 SFS Stats
• FLA 5,500 applications
• 258,000 acres
• FS 2,000 enrolled
• 150,000 acres

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NURSERY Nursery

• > 300k seedlings for reforestation/afforestation

projects

• Arbor Day Sandy Storm Recovery Project – 100k

seedlings will be provided to homeowners in late March/April

• A4055 – Assembly bill – sales cannot be below

market value; impact sales to private landowners

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EDUCATION AND OUTREACH Woodland Stewards

• Designed to increase basic understanding of

forest management to interested public

• 4 day/3 night ‐ $75
• Rutgers/NJFA with funding from SFS/USFS
• 4th program in 2014
• 21 successful graduates
• Require 30 hours of volunteer service

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Backyard Forestry in 90 minutes

2/12 Pruning trees for health and beauty 3/12 Wildlife in, on, and around your trees 4/9 What’s bugging your trees 5/14 Under the microscope: Tree diseases

FREC Programs

Full Moon Hike

February 2, 2015 March 6, 2015 7:00 p.m.

Forest Resource Education Center Jackson, NJ

www.forestrycenter.nj.gov

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Nature Conservancy Workshop

Farms, Forests and Rivers: Sustaining Our Way of Life January 28, 2015 10 a.m. – 3.p.m.

Free workshop for farmers, landowners and municipalities in the Paulinskill River area. Sussex County Fairgrounds 37 Plains Rd., Augusta, NJ

Events

• Wild Outdoor Expo ‐ Colliers Mills WMA
• Sept 12‐13, 10‐3
• Fall Forestry Festival ‐ FREC
• Oct 3, 10‐3

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Website

• RFP in review
• Interactive; increase information
• Create SFS identity separate from Parks

STATE LANDS

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State Lands

• Plan development process finalized
• Working with F&W as well as Parks
• Continue discussions with Pinelands

Commission

• RFP for 30k+ acres – Inventory of 7 DEP

parcels – Stokes, High Point, Bear Swamp, Hainesville, Flatbrook, Trout Brook, Walpack

State Lands

• Harvesting Contracts out or soon‐to‐be

– Double Trouble – Atlantic White Cedar – Whiting WMA – Stafford Forge WMA (second time) – Brendan Byrne SF – Greenwood WMA

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State Lands

• Projects underway

– Wharton SF – SPB/Hazardous fuel thinning project – Double Trouble SP ‐ Stewardship plan – public comment – Belleplain SF ‐ Stewardship Plan – draft update – Sparta Mtn WMA Stewardship Plan – Weldon Brook WMA

FIRE

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RxB

• 2014 ‐ >15,000 acres burned
• Policy updates ‐ 3 methods for private

landowner to manage

• 1. Landowner conducts – current practice
• 2. SFS implements – based on availability; no cost

for 2015

• 3. “Professional burn manager” – permits the

hiring of a professional still under development

Wildfire Stats

• 922 wildfires

– 677 fires – less than ¼ acre – 200 fires – ¼ to 9.99 acres

• 6531 acres
• 381 other incidents

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Fire Adapted Community Fire Service Leadership Award

Greg McLaughlin

URBAN AND COMMUNITY

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Community Forestry

• $1.2 M in funding
• 264 Municipalities with CFMP
• 147 Green Communities Grants
• 27 CSIP Grants
• 151 Tree City municipalities

Consultant program

• Shade Tree Federation/Rutgers/SFS
• Outreach regarding Community Forestry

Management plans, etc

• Increase engagement with urban/community

forestry foresters

• Sometime 2015

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FOREST HEALTH Emerald ash borer in NJ

Detected in four municipalities

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EAB Task Force

• SFS/Rutgers/Dept of Ag/USDA APHIS
• Develop a united message and transfer of

information to landowners, municipalities, non‐profits, etc

• Website ‐ NJ‐centric

Southern Pine Beetle

• Continue to harvest hot spots
• Decrease in beetles and spots
• Movement is slowly moving north – confirmed

in Ocean County

• Confirmed on Long Island, NY
• Working with USFS for additional forest health

funding.

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Northern long‐eared bat

Proposed for listing as endangered under USFW Endangered Species Act

STEWARDSHIP RULE

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Stewardship rule

• Must conform to Treasury’s FLA rules and

program

• Pinelands CMP
• Flood Hazard rules and Freshwater Wetlands
• OPRA and DEP General Practice and Procedure

rules

• USFWS – ESA
• DEP T&E rules and process
• USDA ‐ USFS – Stewardship program is

guidance

Stewardship rule

• Stewardship law and Beck Bill – require

monitoring requirements

• Guidance document will need to be

developed for implementation

• VOLUNTARY

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Stewardship rule

• 3 stakeholder meetings – Nov. 2014
• New draft to go out within the next week
• Submit for legal review – March/April
• Governor office approval
• 60 – day public comment period

New Initiatives

• FIA Inventory Contract with USFS
• Industry Meeting
• Private Lands fuels mitigation projects
• Pilot project ‐ Installation of 2 cameras for

Detection

• Focus on wildfire hazards/risks in Pinelands –

grant application

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ISSUE

REFERENDUM

For more info

www.forestry.nj.gov

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like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/newjerseyforests

Lynn Fleming, State Forester

609‐292‐2520 Lynn.Fleming@dep.nj.gov

www.forestry.nj.gov