Together Recognizing Environmental Elements
Arbor Day 2011
Together Recognizing Environmental Elements
“TREE”
John R. Spodofora
“A man in the woods comes face to face with the creation, of which he must begin to see himself a part”
Wendell Berry
Every tree is part of the global forest – and every tree that grows in our yards, along our streets and highways, on our playgrounds and in our parks, adds something to our lives. This year’s Arbor Day and Tree City Ceremony will be held on Friday, May 6, 2011 at the Ocean Acres Community Center. In Stafford Township we will recognize and celebrate one of our most valuable and beautiful natural resources-trees. Our dependence on trees is often overlooked or taken for granted. Throughout our Country, especially along our coastal zones, we need to recognize the critical roles trees, watersheds and open space play in controlling flooding, cleansing our water and air and preventing erosion.
The trees within our watersheds provide a common sense, cost effective way to keep pollution out of the streams that flow into Barnegat Bay. Research has shown that these streamside forests provide a wealth of benefits. Their shade moderates water temperature, their roots stabilize stream banks, and fallen limbs and leaves provide nurseries, habitat and food for stream dwelling creatures. In addition, trees filter pollutants out of both surface runoff and shallow groundwater before they can enter waterways. Maintaining clean water in our streams and waterways is crucial to the health of Barnegat Bay and its fish, clams, crabs and other living resources.
It is easy for most of us to recognize trees as resources when we consider the many products they produce for us in our daily lives. Most of us live in homes constructed of wood and filled with furniture crafted from trees. Some people heat their homes with wood. We all have enjoyed the many fruits trees produce, such as apples, cherries, pears, figs, nuts etc. Moreover, many of you are already aware of the various medicines that are by-products of tree leaves and bark. The sap from trees is utilized to produce products such as maple syrup, turpentine and rubber. Even the books and newspaper you read are a by-product of wood pulp. Each of us needs to be aware of the important role trees play in our daily lives, spend some time recognizing, observing and thinking of the various ways we utilize trees as resources.
All of us need to reflect on the important role trees played in the development of our community. It would be easy to picture the first English settlement in what is now Stafford Township. It probably started with a fragile wooden compound close to Barnegat Bay in a region so primeval that it’s been said the first settlers described it as a "plain wilderness, as God first ordained it." That wilderness presented hardships for which many of the first settlers were unprepared, but the many streams and the Barnegat Bay into which they flowed abounded with a wealth of another kind. One old timer whose family has lived here for generations wrote that his grandfather told him the waterfowl; clams, oysters and fish were so thick that they “could scoop them up in a frying pan."
Our first settlers recognized trees as a valuable resource; they were impressed with the abundance and size of stands of white cedar, red cedar, oaks, pine and maple. The size and quality of the White Cedar located in and around the Stafford Township area was desirable and valuable for building schooners, boats and ships for the English Navy. A number of sawmills soon appeared and an industry was born. The area, which is now Manahawkin Lake, was once a large white cedar swamp. After the trees were cut and removed, the early settlers constructed an earthen dam across the southern end of the basin (which used to be the swamp) to form a lake. Once the dam was built, two spillways were added which used the water from the lake to power gristmills and sawmills. A railway was later extended to transport the cut lumber to various locations for shipbuilding etc.
In the decade between 1865 and 1875, the miles of railroads doubled, in part to transport timber, which went from a $96 million industry in 1860 to $210 million in 1870. The value assigned to forests at the beginning of the 20th century was spurred on by a fear of a timber famine. That makes sense - wood was our only source of construction material and fuel. By the mid-1800's, 40 to 50 percent of our coastal watershed had been cleared to meet the growing nation's energy demands. A single home could burn 20 to 40 cords of wood a year for heating and cooking. During this same period bog iron was discovered in Ocean and Atlantic Counties. These bog iron foundries sometimes required 20,000 to 30,000 acres of trees to function. Fueled by these demands, forest clearing continued until, by the dawn of the 20th century, only 30 to 40 percent of the Barnegat Bay area's forests remained. Other forestry related industries started by the early settlers included pinecone and spagnum moss gathering. Once the railroad was in place to ship the areas lumber resources, the settlers were able to develop the local fishery industry in Barnegat Bay.
What the settlers did not realize as they continued to cut these forests was the link between the forest and the Bay. It was an oversight that would lead to the decline of both. More than trees were gone. As forests were cut, soil ran off the land, including important nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus. Sediment and nutrient-fueled algae blooms soon started to cloud the water, blocking sunlight to important underwater grass beds that provide vital food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue-claw crabs, and other species. Algae fuels the food chain, but when there's more around than the fish, clams and others can eat, the algae will die and sink to the bottom, decomposing in a process that depletes the water of oxygen. Some species can flee these "dead zones"; many species such as shellfish cannot escape and will die. As habitat declines, so do clams, waterfowl, and many species of fish.
As both the supply of mature trees declined and the demand of wood as a fuel decreased, the forests began to rebound. These new trees, offspring's of the majestic giants that protected our watersheds started to again quickly remove the nutrients, phosphates and nitrates from the runoff. Their roots once again stabilized the soils by preventing the silt from entering Barnegat Bay. The Bay, free from contaminants again rebounded with healthy populations of waterfowl, clams, crabs and fish.
The harvesting of trees in Stafford is no longer a major industry. However, trees continue to be an important resource as they clean and filter our air and water, thereby protecting our fisheries which are one of today's major industries and also making Stafford Township a desirable place to live and visit. Although our watersheds continue to be at risk from a demand for new housing we have been able to enact standards and laws to protect the most critical areas. Even though some of our lakes and streams are not as pristine as the first settlers found them, water still continues to flow over some areas of our Township almost as freely as it did centuries ago. Those areas are vital to the watershed. It's not just a matter of scenery or recreation. Every bit of the system that still runs without interference is like a piece of ancient but critical machinery we no longer know how to build. It's of inestimable value.
For these reasons the Stafford Township Environmental Commission has established as its community theme for 2011 T.R.E.E., (Together Recognizing Environmental Elements). The Commission hopes to draw attention to the important role trees played n the history of Stafford Township, and continue to play by keeping our air and surface and groundwater clean, and also as a valuable economic resource. Understanding the important role trees played in the past will help us better understand the need to protect and manage them for our future. Poster, poem and essay contests depicting the importance of trees as resources will be promoted within all schools located in the Township. Savings bonds and awards will be given to those students K – 12 who best represent an understanding of trees as resources in each of the categories. The awards will be presented at the Township's televised Arbor Day and Tree City ceremony on Friday, May 6th beginning at 3:45PM at the Ocean Acres Community Center, located at 489 NautilusDr.,Manahawkin, NJ. Detailed information about the contest is available at each school and within Town Hall. The commission is also looking for sponsors for the various awards to be presented to the children. If any individual or group would like to sponsor any of the awards they should contact Ms. Annemarie Sillitoe in the Stafford Township Department of Community Development at 609-597-1000 Extension 8537. Ms. Sillitoe is also available to answer questions and provide information on this award-winning program.
As we approach the beginning of the new millennium, a change is occurring in the science and practice of forestry. Major advances in our knowledge of the social, ecological, and economic values of trees and forests and the important role they play in the hydrologic cycle have resulted in new criteria for evaluating these resources. This new knowledge is allowing citizens to become more involved in deciding how forests are used. Yet the hydrologic cycle is, ultimately, a system of rebirth - the sun blazes, trees grow, and thunder roars, and water comes around again. Human beings, too, come around, to new ideas, new understanding, and new hope.
