Youths from a church group and a synagogue group joined hands recently to repopulate a fire-scarred forest area with Atlantic white cedar.
Eleven people from Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Tuckerton, and 19 from Hagalil, the New Jersey region of the United Synagogue Youth, assisted by state forest volunteers, planted 350 seedlings in Bass River State Forest.
A study of Atlantic white cedar in the state forest found that no young cedar stands were growing, and that the average age of existing stands is 40 to 60 years old, according to the state Department of Parks and Forestry Web site.
As cedar stands get older, they can break down and begin to be replaced by hardwood forest.
The project's origins go back July 1995, when the New Jersey Forest Service formed an Atlantic White Cedar Steering Committee, which began the Atlantic White Cedar Initiative.
The two youth groups met at the state forest office and headed out in four-wheel-drive vehicles to a cedar regeneration project site off Dan's Bridge Road, approximately 4 miles from the office, said Cynthia Cortiz, superintendent of Bass River State Forest and the project organizer.
Smokey Bear and Shawn Judy of the state Forest Fire Service provided a brief presentation on forest fire fighting and forest fire prevention tips. Forester Jeremy Webber of the Forest Service explained the significance of Atlantic white cedar in New Jersey and the process of re-establishing them in Bass River State Forest.
Found along shorelines on the East Coast, the trees are adapted to survive in brackish water environments.
Webber stressed the importance of proper planting, including that the roots should be inserted into the ground as straight as possible and the minimum height of each seedling for survival.
The site is fenced to reduce the chance of deer eating the seedlings.
The volunteers paired up with a bucket of seedlings and a tool called a "dibble bar," or "hoe dad," and were sent to locations throughout the 5-acre site to plant the 350 Atlantic white cedar seedlings along the Dan's Branch of the Bass River.
"Everyone had a good time, and some kids were even naming the seedlings after they planted them," Cortiz said. "Within an hour all the seedlings were planted, and the former cedar forest that had been killed by fire had plenty of 1-foot-tall Atlantic white cedar seedlings that will soon become a thick forest again."
Within the New Jersey Pinelands, cedar swamps provide habitat for 19 species of mammals. According to studies conducted by the Pinelands Commission, many species with declining populations live in the cedar wetlands habitat, including the Pine Barrens tree frog, bog turtle, timber rattlesnake, northern pine snake, and several species of salamander. Unique plant species growing in Pine Barren cedar bogs include the rare curly grass fern, several species of orchids, milkworts, sedges and cotton grasses, and the federally endangered swamp pink.APP.com
