Heartwood Ecological Consulting NJ

Foresters & Natural Resources Professionals

What Can New Jersey Learn from California’s Deadly Wildfires?

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Pine Barrens Wilfires

California wildfires again were front-page news in December. Huge wildfires burned from Los Angles down to San Diego; most were contained by the end of the year. We saw large, expensive homes threatened or outright burned down by the fires. Some fires are only halted when they reach the Pacific Ocean.

Santa Rosa, Calif., was decimated this past fall by wildfires. According to The New York Times, over 5,700 buildings were destroyed in northern California, 2,800 in Santa Rosa alone. According to the Los Angeles Times, there were 42 confirmed deaths caused by these fires.

I have been asked a few times if this type of disaster could happen in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. My answer is that it is certainly possible, just not as probable. Let’s take a look at what circumstances are different and what factors are similar.

Firstly, I would like to compare wildfires to hurricanes. This will help explain differences between New Jersey and California. Hurricanes are an occurrence we in New Jersey are very familiar with. The only thing that saves our coast from hurricanes is we generally don’t get hit with hurricanes. The Jersey Shore is subject to damage from both wave action and storm surge if a hurricane hits us. Even a Category 1 storm, like Sandy, can do extensive damage. Florida, however, gets hit by more hurricanes. Unlike New Jersey’s coast, which is comparatively sheltered, Florida sticks out into the ocean. In many ways it’s just hanging out there, waiting for a storm. [Read more…]

Scientists discover a second bacterium that causes Lyme Disease

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tick on a leaf

Until very recently it was thought that just one bacterium was to blame for causing Lyme disease in humans. But it turns out that a second, related bug can cause it too. In 2013, during routine testing of bacterial DNA floating around in the blood samples of people suspected of having Lyme disease, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., realized they were looking at something different.  “We detected this result which was positive, but it was clearly different from what we would have expected for Borrelia burgdorferi, which at that time was the only known cause of Lyme disease in the U.S.,” says Dr. Bobbi Pritt, a microbiologist at the Mayo Clinic.  When they sequenced the genome of the bacterium, they realized it was different enough to be considered a new species. It’s been dubbed Borrelia mayonii, after the Mayo Clinic. [Read more…]

Is Tree Removal a DIY Project?

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When it comes to DIY projects for your lawn, most experts agree that tree removal and large branch trimming shouldn’t be among them.

via Angie’s List: Those jobs are best left to professionals because of specific skills, precision and safety precautions needed.Saving a few hundred dollars isn’t worth endangering your life.“There are many stories in the news media each year depicting the sad details of homeowners getting severely injured or killed by attempting to manage large tree limbs on their own,” says Tchukki Andersen, staff arborist for the Tree Care Industry Association…. Go here Is Tree Removal a DIY Project?

Jersey guys join the crush to produce hard cider

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THE REVIVAL OF AMERICAN HARD CIDER — sales have roughly doubled in each of the past three years — has spawned a bumper crop of artisanal cideries in Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and other apple-growing states. But not in New Jersey.

That’s not right, considering New Jerseyans were among the first in the New World to ferment apple juice into hard cider and distill hard cider into applejack.  America’s oldest distillery, Laird’s, has been making applejack in Colts Neck since the Revolutionary War, to cite just one example.

“New Jersey was known for its cider and applejack, to the point that New Yorkers called New Jerseyans ‘apple-knockers,’ ” says drinks historian David Wondrich, editor of the soon-to-be-published “Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails” (Oxford University Press, 2016). “You said apples to a New Yorker and he thought, ‘Jersey.’ [Read more…]

LETTER: Stop closing Pinelands roads

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3 boys in canoe

… My family has a very long history of living and working in the Pinelands of New Jersey. In the early 1900s, my great-grandfather and his brother, who were American Indians, ran the cranberry bogs in Sim Place. My grandfather, who lived on Bull Town Road in Wharton State Forest, was a guide for the wealthy deer hunters from Pennsylvania, in addition to farming moss, etc.

This area called the New Jersey Pinelands was alive with sawmills, glass factories, a railroad, taverns, the first blueberry farms, etc. My grandfather and his brother owned hundreds of acres in Sim Place. Well, when the government wanted it for its bombing range, the ground was taken from my grandmother. Where was the DEP then to protect the plants and wildlife?… [Read more…]