“This is the largest forest restoration project ever undertaken in New Jersey and the largest ever in the nation restoring Atlantic white cedars,” Commissioner LaTourette said. “Through this project, we will reestablish once-dominant stands of Atlantic white cedar, but at higher elevations less vulnerable to rising seas and saltwater intrusion and provide habitat for globally rare plants and wildlife, while capturing and storing carbon and absorbing floodwaters.”
The DEP’s Forest Service has already successfully returned Atlantic white cedar to sites where it has been lost on both public and private land. DEP will now scale up this effort, returning more than 10,000 acres of cedar forests to New Jersey’s Pinelands in places where its continued survival is not threatened by a changing climate. This effort will strengthen connectivity of this ecosystem, increase the area of high-value wetlands that store and naturally filter water, create natural breaks needed for wildfire control – and begin to restore the grandeur of southern New Jersey’s wetland forests. For information and a video, visit http://atlanticwhitecedar.nj.gov/
The restoration activities will take place on state-owned forests, parks, and Wildlife Management Areas and is funded through DEP’s natural resource damage recoveries, including settlements with manufacturers and distributors of gasoline containing methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) that contaminated groundwater and surface water throughout New Jersey. DEP pursues natural resource damages to compensate the public for harm to their natural resources and utilizes recoveries for environmentally beneficial projects like the restoration of Atlantic white cedars, the creation and enhancement of wetlands, the cleanup of waterways, and other projects that support the public’s use and enjoyment of their environment.
To continue reading, go to: NJDEP | Atlantic White Cedar Restoration | New Jersey Forest Service