Stewardship Roundtable

Society for Ecological Restoration Mid-Atlantic Chapter 2012 Conference

Jon Wagar — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:38:14 +0000

The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration is holding their annual conference at Brooklyn College on March 23 to 24, 2012. If the line-up is anything like last year, it could be very worthwhile to attend as many of the presentations were focused on issues that we face while managing our preserved lands in New Jersey. Let me know if you are thinking of attending and perhaps we can carpool.

Next Stewardship Roundtable Meeting – Thursday, January 19, 2012, 9:30 to 12:30

Jon Wagar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:28:39 +0000

Dear Stewardship Roundtable,

Monmouth County Parks has graciously offered to host the next Stewardship Roundtable, at Historic Walnford in Upper Freehold: Click here for directions.

We will be meeting there on Thursday, January 19^th, from 9:30 until 12:30.

Many thanks to Ken Thoman for hosting us!

So far, here is the agenda:

UPDATE: on the NY-NJ Trail Conferences invasive program that started this year. (Linda Rohleder)

DISCUSSIONS:

DISCUSSION: Management strategies with regard to “bad” neighbors or others who use preserved lands inappropriately. (Julie Anne Hajdusek)

DISCUSSION: Ecological forestry (Leslie Sauer)

DISCUSSION: What specific additional tools, resources or outreach do we need for ecological restoration to succeed as a practice in New Jersey? (Jared Rosenbaum)

Please e-mail me discussion items, updates, or additional questions for discussion!

Thanks all,

Jared

Ecological Forestry at Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area

Jon Wagar — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:00:36 +0000

Here are two articles that are part of the excellent “Grassroots” series by the Daily Record about conservation issues in New Jersey:

Saving songbirds: Sparta Mountain project an effort to lure golden-winged warblers

GRASSROOTS INTERVIEW: New Jersey forests once a crowded stage for crooning golden wings

View Larger Map

What NJ Audubon and the Division of Fish and Wildlife have done is use ecological forestry concepts to create habitat for the imperiled golden winged warbler at Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area. Although this type of active stewardship activity has the potential to be controversial in New Jersey, collaborating with partners can make all the difference. Kudos to NJ Audubon and the Division of Fish and Wildlife for this excellent project!

If you want to know what Stewardship is, read this!

Jon Wagar — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:27:59 +0000

What exactly should Land Stewardship mean to land managers in New Jersey? What are some of the prevalent conservation threats and what are land managers doing to address these threats? Anne H. Jacobson, Program Office at the Victoria Foundation, put together this excellent white paper on Land Stewardship. It also includes information about existing funding sources for Stewardship.

Ms. Jacobson writes:

“Stewardship” is a broad term that goes beyond “management” (traditionally associated with farming and forestry operations) to encompass an environmental ethic: the …… ongoing responsibility – in perpetuity – to supervise, enhance, maintain, and defend its properties.

Click here to download and read the entire white paper.

Excellent Opinion Article about New Forest Stewardship Bill

Jon Wagar — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:40:09 +0000

Forest in the NJ Highlands affected by hemlock wooly adelgid

For those interested in the new Forest Stewardship Bill and why I believe land stewards should support it, check out Anthony Mauro’s excellent piece in New Jersey Newsroom. He writes:

The bills provide a means to facilitate natural processes through forestry practices. These intentional, human-induced activities can initiate the recovery of ecosystem health, integrity, and sustainability. If we are going to continue to prevent Mother Nature from freely using her methods to manage forests it is our obligation to safely and responsibly replicate her formulas.

This article nicely gets at an underlying question that is rarely articulated or discussed among the land conservation community at the policy level – how active of a role should we play in addressing conservation threats and opportunities on state lands? and should one of the tools we use be forestry?

Click here to read the entire article.