Politics & Government
Critics Slam State's Proposal For Vehicle Permits In Wharton State Forest
A steady stream of critics were clear in their disgust for the permit plan.
February 10, 2023
Six months ago, with dirt bikers and ATV riders illegally tearing up the Wharton State Forest in the Pinelands, state environmental officials proposed a controversial solution — requiring motorists to buy permits as a way to ferret out the law-flouters.
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Wednesday, the Pineys were clear. They don’t want it.
About 350 people tuned in to a three-hour, virtual public hearing Wednesday night on the state Department of Environmental Protection’s proposal to create a vehicle permit system in the 124,350-acre forest, similar to one at Island Beach State Park where people pay $195 a year for permits to drive on the beach to go fishing.
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A steady stream of critics — from lifelong residents to hunters to kayakers to elected officials to even a “Subaru ambassador and soft-road enthusiast” — were clear in their disgust for the permit plan.
“Children should not have to wait and see if their parents are going be able to afford a little sticker to go out in the public woods here,” said Heather McGarvey, a Shamong resident who said her seven children spend time in the forest daily. “We’re paying the highest property taxes on this side of the country and nobody wants to do this. It’s just not fair. You’re already taking everything. How much more is the state going to take from the families of New Jersey?”
David Demsey, a lifelong resident of the Pinelands region, told officials he had collected 2,000 signatures from residents who oppose permits.
“I myself will not be getting a permit, and I will be taking it to court if need be,” he said.
A pickup truck navigates a road near Batsto Village in the Wharton State Forest in Burlington County on Jan. 2, 2023. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Assemblyman Brandon Umba (R-Burlington) said the forest belongs to the region’s residents “and we should not be changing how they get to use it.”
Shamong Michael DiCroce called the permit proposal a “money grab.”
“We don’t see a big problem, number one, of people abusing the forest, and we don’t want a police officer behind every tree so that we’re going through the forest and have to worry about that you did something wrong,” DiCroce said. “We don’t feel that our citizens should be charged one penny in order to use Wharton State Forest.”
Even people from Philadelphia hate the plan.
“I ride a motorcycle, a legal one, badly. I realize many of you have spent more time in Wharton, I suspect, than me, but not quite as many of you have eaten as much of its sand as I have,” Philadelphian Ari Schlossberg said. “I am concerned that any permit that’s put in at some low, reasonable allowance might later become some unreasonable thing and prohibitive.”
The opposition wasn’t unexpected.
The state Department of Environmental Protection conducted a six-week survey last fall to learn who uses the forest, how they use it, and whether they thought permits or increased police enforcement would help protect the forest from off-roaders.
More than 1,600 people responded, and most opposed the permit proposal, according to Roman Senyk, a state environmental specialist who presented the survey results at the hearing. Survey respondents instead supported more enforcement, better signs and road mapping, and improved road maintenance and protection of sensitive areas as strategies to discourage vehicles from veering off road.
John Cecil, assistant commissioner of state parks, forests and historic sites, assured listeners the permit proposal is still just a proposal. If a permit system is implemented, he said, it would not cost as much as the one at Island Beach State Park, and waivers would be available.
“We’re not interested in a permit as a revenue generator,” he said. “Our focus here is on thinking about how can we increase enforcement and … what are the steps that we can take to crack down on that and have greater controls around those that are breaking the rules.”
Another public meeting will be held in the late summer.
About 800,000 people a year visit the forest, which is the state’s largest and sits in the million-acre Pinelands region. The forest is home to 43 threatened or endangered animals including the timber rattlesnake and pine snake, as well as Batsto Village, a preserved bog iron and glassmaking industrial hub that dates to 1766.
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