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Council Had Sought Amendments To Regional Plan To Update DEP Science And Close DEP Regulatory Loopholes  

Effort To Better Protect Forests Killed By Murphy DEP

The NJ Highlands Council quietly abandoned efforts to amend the Highlands Regional Master Plan to better protect forests and respond to the most recent climate science.

It is clear that the Murphy DEP pressured the Council to abandon those efforts, which very clearly exposed embarrassing major flaws in DEP’s forest management policies, “Best Management Practices”, and regulations.

Last year, in a NJ Spotlight story about the controversial DEP logging of Highlands forests at Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area, Highlands Council Executive Director Ben Spinelli made that commitment very public:

“Forestry is exempt from the Highlands Act but only if there is an approved forest management plan in effect, Spinelli said. “What we want to be able to do is put appropriate guidelines in place so that in order to enjoy that exemption, they will have to conform to the guidelines.”

• See: Conservationists clash over plan to save a rare bird in a public forest (September 15, 2023)

In light of DEP planned renewed logging at Sparta Mountain Highlands forests, today I reached out to Executive Director Spinelli to ask about the status of his RMP forestry amendments.

Clearly, DEP’s logging at Sparta Mountain was exactly why the Council initiated their own forestry policies. DEP’s policies failed to protect forests, promoted logging, did not reflect current science or passage of the Highlands Act, failed to consider climate change, and were based on a voluntary (non-regulatory) 1995 “Best Management Practices” document. I’ve been making this criticism of DEP for over a decade.

Ben told me that the Council abandoned those efforts in December, after a private meeting with DEP staff.

That is all made clear – and my historic criticisms of DEP validated – according to the Highlands Council’s December Monthly Management Report.

Here is the entire section, which lays this all out:

Executive Director Priority Spotlight

• Ensuring the long-term health of Highlands forests. As mentioned in this report on previous occasions, Highlands Council staff began a process several months ago to develop best management practice (BMP) guidance specifically for Highlands forests. The need for such guidance is clear: Although statewide Forestry and Wetlands BMPs exist, they were created in 1995, prior to legislative recognition of the important value of the Highlands region to the state’s water supply, prior to understanding the impacts of climate change on the region’s forests, and prior to the development of forestry BMPs specifically intended to balance forest management with protection of water supply areas. All accepted science recognizes the direct relationship between healthy forests and forest soils and the protection of water quality, water quantity and water timing; the Highlands region’s role in providing all or a part of the drinking water supply for 70% of the state’s nine million residents call for the incorporation of special provisions for Highlands forests.

Since 1995, in addition to the passage of the Highlands Act, the U.S. Forest Service, the EPA, the USDA, the NRCS and states both neighboring New Jersey and across the country have put forth BMPs and other guidance intended to mitigate and reduce impacts of forest management practices on water resources and to foster improvements in forest health. This has not yet happened in New Jersey. The intent of the Highlands Council effort was to address this gap by providing a supplement to the 1995 statewide BMPs using updated information and expert input from a wide range of stakeholders to inform and guide the process by which the State Forester approves forest management and forest stewardship plans.

Sustainable active forestry practices, such as those implemented by the New York City DEP for the 2,000 square mile Catskill and Croton watersheds, are imperative for ensuring the long-term health of the Highlands’ important forested lands. Our work on this issue and our research and outreach efforts support this goal and, while still early in the drafting process, the Highlands Council was engaged in creating a comprehensive document that reflected these facts. Regardless of our efforts at the Highlands Council, our work would require the cooperation and acceptance by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), which has been actively engaged in our process through its many agencies since the outset.

In early December Highlands Council staff met with the NJDEP and agreed to transfer our work on this endeavor to our sister agency for consideration when and if they embark upon an update to the existing 1995 statewide Best Management Practices. We look forward to this continued collaboration and remain committed to the long-term protection of Highlands forests.

This Council text very clearly notes major flaws in DEP forestry policies and very clearly fingers DEP for derailing their planned RMP amendments.

It also signals a major problem at DEP: note the use of “when and if”. That means that the Council got no firm commitment from the Murphy DEP to strengthen current policies.

And that is a major problem, particularly in light of the collapse of Senator Smith’s Forestry Reform Task Force.