The New Jersey Forest Fire Service is a Division of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), The NJ Department of Environmental Protection issued a press release on March 4th, "Forest Fire Prevention Measures Under Way Across New Jersey." They speak to climate change and the importance of maintaining forests:
As New Jersey’s climate continues to change, forest maintenance, including prescribed burning, takes on even greater importance. New Jersey’s changing climate increases the risk for more frequent and larger wildfires due to longer, hotter periods of dry weather, as described in the first-ever New Jersey Scientific Report on Climate Change, released in 2020. Prescribed burns are carefully planned and managed based on atmospheric conditions and carbon emissions from prescribed burns represent a small fraction of the emissions that could be produced in a wildfire.
“Prescribed burning not only helps protect the lives and property of those who live in or near forested areas, it is also an important part of the state’s carbon defense strategy, protecting carbon stored in forests from wildfire risk,” Acting Commissioner LaTourette said. “By taking careful steps to manage forest health, we can avoid potentially catastrophic releases of carbon from wildfires that, due to climate change, are routinely destroying communities and ecosystems while increasing harmful emissions.”
The March 4th DEP press release discusses some cooperative prescribed burns in northern New Jersey, finishing with prescribed burn statistics from 2020:
Wildfires can have the greatest benefit in areas where people live in or near forests, grasslands and other natural areas. …
For example, this year, the Forest Fire Service will do a cooperative burn on approximately 200 acres in Mansfield Township, Warren County. The area includes part of the Pequest Wildlife Management Area and an adjacent private landowner’s property, with assistance from the Wildlife Management Institute and a Delaware River Watershed Initiative Grant.
In addition, the First Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hunterdon County, in Kingwood Township, has asked the Forest Fire Service to do a controlled burn in a 9.5-acre field on its property. The burn will be conducted as part of a native grassland/wildlife habitat restoration project undertaken by the church on their property with assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service.
In 2020, the Forest Fire Service completed controlled burns on 18,854 acres of state-owned lands, 5,006 acres of other government-owned land and 2,268 acres of privately owned property, for a total of 26,128 acres.
The recent snows in New Jersey cut into the New Jersey Forest Fire Service's prescribed burning for most of February. Snow is still lingering in northern New Jersey. I know, because I am still seeing snow in my yard and environs, where melted it is wet and muddy. I recently saw on the New Jersey Forest Fire Service's Facebook page of the resumption of prescribed burning in central and southern New Jersey starting on February 25th. I know enough to know that this means that snow is not a factor in those portions of New Jersey where the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has been conducting prescribed burning in central and southern New Jersey. Here is a list of prescribed burns in central and southern New Jersey since February 25th. I do not know of any prescribed done in northern New Jersey.
February 25
Burlington County
- Woodland Twp - Franklin Parker Preserve
Ocean County
- Little Egg Harbor Twp - Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area
February 26
Burlington County
- Woodland Twp - Barnegat Rd
Ocean County
- Eagleswood - Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area
- Lacey - Double Trouble State Park
Cape May
- Upper Twp - Pesalee Wildlife Management Area
Cumberland County
- Commercial Twp - Millville Wildlife Management Area
- Maurice River - Peaslee Wildlife Management Area
March 3
Ocean County
- Lacey / Barnegat / Manchester - Greenwood Wildlife Management Area
- Jackson - Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area
March 4
DIVISION B
Burlington County
- Medford Township - Private Land
- Washington Township - Wharton State Forest
Ocean County
- Lacey Township - Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area
- Lacey Township - County Land
- Manchester Township - Manchester Wildlife Management Area
- Manchester Township -Brendan T Byrne State Forest
- Manchester Township - Manchester Wildlife Management Area
- Stafford Township - Private Land
DIVISION C
- Commercial Township - Bevans Wildlife Management Area
- Winslow Township / Monroe Township - Winslow Wildlife Management Area
March 5
DIVISION B
Burlington County
- Washington Township -Wharton State Forest
- Manchester Township / Woodland Township -Brendan T Byrne State Forest
Ocean County
- Berkeley Township - County Land
- Little Egg Harbor Township -Bass River State Forest
DIVISION C
Cape May County
- Middle Township - Federal Land
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