April 7, 2017
Logging Sparta Mountain isn’t
about the golden warbler, for which there is already habitat nearby. It is part
of a cynical effort to promote commercial logging of state forests for an
industry/conservation coalition.
The cutting will primarily benefit
Division of Fish and Wildlife customers who shoot small, upland species, and
timber companies. New Jersey Audubon consults on the projects and develops
plans.
In 2009, the division said that
it desired logging, “including clear-cuts,” for hunted grouse, woodcock and
quail. “Stewardship” for the warbler came later. Further, through logging, the division
wants to shift management costs for increasing hunted species from hunters to
New Jersey taxpayers.
When it comes to deer, the
statewide logging campaign is incoherent: Logging creates more deer. Yet to
protect “forest systems” – of which Sparta Mountain is one – New Jersey Audubon
lobbies with hunting groups for killing deer via slashed home safety buffers,
Sunday hunting, and hunter access to private and public land.
The fact that unpopular clear
cutting is being forced, despite strong opposition from environmental
organizations who are invariably, says Audubon, “confused” or “misguided,”
illustrates the extent to which the industry/New Jersey Audubon/Division of
Fish and Wildlife coalition has monopolized the state’s wildlife and land
policy.
The Teaming with Wildlife (TWW)
national steering committee creates and controls state wildlife and land policy.
It is dominated by wildlife-use trade associations and fronts (“nature-related
businesses”), including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade
association for the firearms industry that opposed gun restrictions in Newtown,
Connecticut; the Archery Trade Association, and other equipment manufacturers
as well as logging and fur interests, state hunting agencies and cooperating
conservation groups allied with industry. (See the Washington Post series on
conservation and industry alliances here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/natureconservancy/)
The results: Projects that benefit hunted species and loggers are publicly justified
as benefiting song birds.
New Jersey Audubon, which
promotes hunting and logging, is the state TWW co-director.
The network of ancillary TWW
members includes state conservation grant brokers and staffed conservation
consultancies and foundations with few if any public members. Before the public
is aware of the policy, each trade -selected “stakeholder” is accommodated. Input
from the actual public or TWW non-participants is a chimera. “Diversity” is
writ by a single hand.
As demonstrated by what is
happening at Sparta Mountain, the sole “stakeholder” absent is the public. Rectifying that deliberate spurn, Senator
Raymond Lesniak’s bill, S3044, would prevent the logging. The measure deserves
our full support.
Sincerely,
Susan Russell
Wildlife Policy Director
Animal Protection League of New Jersey
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