- The New Jersey Division of Environmental Safety (DEP) has charged itself with damaging the habitat of threatened and endangered birds it’s legally sure to guard.
- The Backyard State’s Division of Fish and Wildlife was despatched a violation discover for unauthorized habitat building for the American woodcock, which unwittingly displaced barred owl and red-shouldered hawk populations in Gloucester County.
- “This by no means ought to have occurred. They have to additionally take steps to enhance their clearly insufficient inner evaluate course of and meaningfully have interaction the general public,” New Jersey Conservation Basis head Tom Gilbert mentioned.
New Jersey’s Division of Environmental Safety has charged itself with damaging habitat for threatened and endangered birds that it was supposed to guard.
The work was designed to create habitat for one species of hen, however really wound up destroying habitat for 2 others.
The division acknowledged it despatched a violation discover and threatened penalties towards its personal Division of Fish and Wildlife concerning unauthorized work in February and March on the Glassboro Wildlife Administration Space in Clayton, Gloucester County.
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It was unclear how any penalties may work when the DEP is each the accuser and the accused. It additionally was not instantly clear whether or not any cash may really change palms. The division didn’t reply to questions on potential fines.
The work concerned the clearing of vegetation and disturbance of soils on practically 3 acres of what the state calls “distinctive useful resource worth freshwater wetlands.” Earlier than the work was completed, this land was thought of appropriate habitat for the barred owl, which is listed as a threatened species, and the red-shouldered hawk, an endangered species.
The challenge additionally cleared and disturbed an extra 12 acres of land close to wetlands referred to as transition areas, which are also protected.
The DEP refused Friday to debate how the work occurred with out authorization.
The red-shouldered hawk is one in all two avian species displaced by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s unwitting habitat destruction in Gloucester County. (Robin Rudd/Chattanooga Occasions Free Press by way of AP, File)
On its web site, the division wrote on Feb. 1 that the work sought to create 21 acres of habitat for the American woodcock, a member of the sandpiper household that makes use of its lengthy, slender beak to forage for earthworms in damp soil. The challenge was designed to create “meadow habitat.”
However in doing so, the state destroyed mature oak and pine forests in and close to wetlands, and crammed in some wetlands, 4 conservation teams mentioned in a letter to the division in early March complaining concerning the work. The company issued the violation discover on April 6.
“The wetland soil and flora that have been beforehand undisturbed have been destroyed, and the mature forest that was already habitat for quite a few uncommon species of crops and birds was clear-cut logged,” the teams wrote. “All timber have been minimize, and all stumps bulldozed.”
Tom Gilbert, a pacesetter of the New Jersey Conservation Basis, mentioned, “This by no means ought to have occurred. They have to additionally take steps to enhance their clearly insufficient inner evaluate course of and meaningfully have interaction the general public.”
Jaclyn Rhoads, assistant govt director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, counseled the state for proudly owning as much as its mistake, however mentioned the DEP ought to present a listing of present tasks on its web site for public evaluate.
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“It’s due to the general public that we have been capable of cease additional destruction of this panorama,” she mentioned.
Company spokesman Larry Hajna mentioned the Fish and Wildlife Division’s Bureau of Land Administration should implement applicable soil conservation measures inside 10 days and submit a plan inside 30 days to revive the positioning. That should embody removing of wooden chips positioned there.
By the tip of April, the DEP intends to problem a discover of penalty evaluation.
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Fish and Wildlife will suggest further environmentally helpful measures, which might be topic to a public remark interval, Hajna mentioned.
