Protect the Highlands Forest from Logging

Today, March 22, is the International Day of Forests. The beautiful Highlands Forest, 1,250 miles of which run through New Jersey - and specifically right through our own District 26 - naturally cleans drinking water for two-thirds of New Jersey residents. It supports our district's ecotourism and local businesses, given that 1 in 9 Americans lives within a two-hour drive of the Highlands and we have so many public parks for enjoyment. It adds to the quality of life in living here, supports wildlife and biodiversity including animals that are of conservation concern, and perhaps most importantly given the political challenges ahead of us, it naturally traps the toxic carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

All of this contributes to why we have to protect our Highlands from bad legislation that threatens them with logging and overrides of local conservation ordinances.

As your state Senator if you elect me this November, I would work to protect our natural resources, and public and private lands from threats to their integrity, health, and sustainability. If faced with bills like the following currently under consideration, I would vote 'No.' However, in the interim, there are other people in the seats representing District 26, and so constituents should contact those current representatives to ask for "No" votes on all four of the following bills.

- S-3549/A-4843 - Mandates a forest stewardship (logging) plan for all Green Acres Program lands. This is dangerous because forest stewardship plans can be used as vehicles to enable or even mandate clear-cutting in forests. It's an unfunded mandate that takes unnecessary state control over municipal land.

- S-3550/A-4844 - Says municipal approval is not required for forest stewardship (logging) plans, and worse, stops local governments from passing ordinances that require local approval before forest stewardship plans can be acted upon. Not ok. As someone who is raising her family in Lake Hopatcong, and who has our already-at-threat Mahlon Dickerson reservation in mind in considering this, I want our town council empowered to fight forest destruction - and made up of elected officials who will do so.

- S-3548/A4845 - Mandates burns of 50,000 acres of the Pinelands forest and 10,000 acres of forest elsewhere (hello, that's most likely our forest) every year. This not only reduces the forest's capacity to naturally capture carbon through proforestation and healthy growth, it doesn't address any air pollution issues of these burns, safety concerns, or accountability for extensive damage. Science, caution, and erring toward restraint from interference should advise forest management, not mandatory acreage-destruction minimums.

S-3547/A-4846 - Creates an enforcement and intervention group to make sure that local governments and private landowners submit to and stand down in the face of all of the above. Their job would be to finesse the relationships to ensure compliance, such that that loggers could profit off of the destruction of forests without significant opposition from entities otherwise empowered to stop them, like the Pinelands Commission or the Highlands Commission, or current landowners.

While I understand that businesses supported by 'forest management' need to survive and there is balance in all things, we are in a position of needing extra protections for the forest and layers of accountability and authority to ensure that protection, not the reverse. Trees trap the carbon emissions that cause climate change, and that's especially important for New Jersey. As per our recent 80x50 report, we are facing 1.1 feet of sea level rise by 2030 based on present emissions. We need strategies for carbon capture, and one of the best tools to stop global warming surrounds us in District 26. We need to protect it.

As a mother-of-four raising her children in a Highlands forest town, I oppose these bills. I hope you'll use this International Day of Forests to call to oppose them too. And if you want representation you can count on to take bold positions on matters like these, visit www.clarkeforsenate.com to chip in and make sure of it. Thanks!