MILITARY & VETERANS AFFAIRS
NEWS RELEASE

In celebration of Earth Day, an educational program was held at the Warren Grove Training Range and at the adjacent Stafford Forge Fish and Wildlife Management Area April 28-30.

More than 140 students, teachers and parents from Stafford Intermediate School, Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School, Ocean County Intermediate School, Ocean County Vocational and Technical School and MATES program participated in a variety of forest stewardship activities, which included reforestation planting of 1,500 native tree seedlings, fire ecology, pygmy forest transect, demonstration of forest fire techniques and apparatus and a tour of research plots.

1st Lt. Rich DeFeo, 177th Fighter Wing Environmental engineer, along with the Warren Grove Training Range personnel, the New Jersey Forest Service, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife and the New Jersey Forest Fire Service were involved in the program’s activities.

Earth Day is a great way to ascertain good environmental stewardship and community outreach. It also provides the students an experience that will influence them as to their role in protecting the environment.