Project Description

Project goals were to establish a new stand of Atlantic white cedar on 22 acres along the Factory Branch in Double Trouble State Park and to identify and create a defensible buffer for the newly established and existing Atlantic white cedar utilizing fire and fuel breaks in the adjacent high hazard forest fuels.

Activities included repairing the main access road to the north side of Factory Branch, 17 acres of fire break installation and enhancements, improving access to the restoration site, aerial herbicide application to control hardwood tree and shrub competition in August of 2012 and obtaining privately held property for a second point of access for safe prescribed burning and fire suppression in the upland forest north of the Factory Branch.

Fire mitigation strategies also included the protection of homes located along Carriage Way, Carriage Road, Penhook Road, and Lacey Road.

This project is continuously monitored and evaluated each year to determine if successful Atlantic white cedar establishment has been achieved or if further treatments are needed.

Project Description

Goals of this activity were to restore 25 acres of Atlantic white cedar damaged by Superstorm Sandy along Cedar Creek in 2012. The project was submitted and approved by the Pinelands Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection's Natural and Historic Resources group in 2013.

Atlantic white cedar salvage operations were put out to bid with storm-damaged and remaining standing trees being sold for approximately $15,000. Salvage operations were completed in November of 2015. During this time, the activity was included in the Double Trouble State Park Natural Resource Stewardship Plan.

Aerial herbicide application to control hardwood tree and shrub competition as well as forestry mowing of competing shrubs was conducted from August 2016 to spring of 2017.

Supplemental planting operations were implemented in spring of 2017 and 2018 on the southern portion of the site with more than 5,000 seedlings to aid natural regeneration for establishment of Atlantic white cedar across the site.

This project is continuously monitored and evaluated each year to determine if successful Atlantic white cedar establishment has been achieved or if further treatments are needed.

Project Description

This stewardship plan approved by the Department of Environmental Protection's Natural and Historic Resources group and Pinelands Commission in January 2016, involving various external stakeholders, includes prescriptions for Atlantic white cedar restoration, wildfire mitigation (protection of Atlantic white cedar resource) and habitat management for over 2,900 acres within the nearly 8,600-acre Double Trouble State Park.

A total of 164 acres in Atlantic white cedar restoration will be implemented over the next five years along Cedar Creek, re-establishing a contiguous stretch of Atlantic white cedar forest with activities such as cutting/forestry mowing, herbicide application, planting, monitoring and deer fencing. Of that restoration area, 47 acres of a larger 117-acre stand was treated with aerial herbicide in August of 2019 to encourage natural regeneration of Atlantic white cedar and to reduce competition from overstory hardwoods and shrub communities.

Plantation thinning across 34 acres was initiated, and must still be completed, to reduce high risk fuel conditions adjacent to the Superstorm Sandy restoration area, the Factory Branch and Cedar Creek Atlantic white cedar resources.

Hundreds of acres of prescribe burning and plowline installation have been implemented from 2016 to 2020 for fuelbreak maintenance and establishment along the major Atlantic white cedar drainages, with hundreds more planned over the next five years.

Nearly 360 acres of thinning will be conducted over the next five years to increase forest health and reduce chances of wildfire, with 243 acres planned in the next two years alone. Four acres of firebreak maintenance/installation will assist the implementation of prescribed burns and control wildfires, also creating an added layer of protection to conserve the Atlantic white cedar resource.

The treatment activities contained within this plan are continuously implemented, monitored and evaluated each year to determine if successful treatments have been conducted according to activity schedules within the plan, or if further treatments are needed/must be adapted to meet the goals and objectives of the Natural Resource Stewardship Plan.