In Pinelands, a fight for survival

By RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff

May 22, 2007

New Jersey's vast Pine Barrens, an area that covers roughly one-fifth of the state, have been protected by state and federal law for more than 25 years.

But that does not mean its threatened and endangered animals are in the clear, breathing and breeding easy.

Habitat continues to be lost to development, and development is not the only problem.

Threats as universal as global warming and as local as poaching also beset the rare animals in the 1.1-million-acre Pinelands National Reserve.

"People are spoiled by the bald eagle story," said Emile DeVito, a naturalist with the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. "They think if we can save an eagle, we can surely save a salamander or a snake. It's not necessarily so."

While some rare species in the Pinelands, such as the iconic Pine Barrens Tree Frog, are doing well, others, like the timber rattlesnake, are not, and the list as a whole has remained virtually static.

About the best that can be said, said Robert Zampella, chief scientist for the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, the state agency that oversees the Pinelands Reserve, is that "things are a lot better than they would have been if there had not been a Pinelands plan."

The state lists 32 endangered or threatened animals living in the Pinelands, ranging from the bobcat, the sole mammal on the list, to the Eastern tiger salamander, one of nine reptiles and amphibians.

The list includes 21 birds, led by the bald eagle, and one fish, the shortnose sturgeon.

The status of the Pine Barrens Tree Frog has improved enough to be moved from the "endangered" list to that of merely "threatened."

"I don't think we have more tree frogs," Zampella said, "it's just that they are less threatened now."

Like several of the endangered or threatened species found only in the Pinelands, the tree frog remains on the list because its geographic possibilities are so limited, said Dave Golden, a senior zoologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

There are also species on the brink of disappearing altogether.

"The timber rattlesnake is truly a very rare species in the Pinelands," Zampella said.

"In huge trouble," DeVito said of the snake, in part because of its range.

"There's increased auto traffic on all the roads," including protected areas, DeVito noted.

With a species with as low a birthrate as the timber rattlesnake, DeVito said, a few traffic kills can make a big difference.

Ironically, part of the timber rattlesnake's "failure" may be due to another endangered species' success.

"The barred owl is definitely on the increase because wetland forests are getting older," DeVito said.

DeVito has found rattlesnake skin in the droppings of the barred owl.

"Overall, the Pinelands is doing well because it has prevented development over such a large area, particularly the preservation area," said Carleton Montgomery, the executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, when asked about endangered species.

But he added some caveats.

When the master plan was drawn up 25 years ago, he said, people didn't know where all the populations of rare species were living.

The Pinelands Commission is studying the entire area, small section by small section, with an eye toward recommending changes in zoning, Zampella said.

"If there's a growth area that looks like a preservation area, the commission may want to change that," Zampella said.

A second problem, Montgomery said, is people.

"Even though land is protected from development, it is open to vandalism and collection."

Poachers looking to capture snakes to sell as pets have done damage to the population of both the corn snake (endangered) and the northern pine snake (threatened).

A third problem is human intervention in the natural order of things, Montgomery said.

"We prevent forest fires for good and sufficient reasons," Montgomery said, notably human safety, but in the process we circumvent wildfires that for centuries opened the forests up to new growth and new possibilities for both plants and animals.

Finally, he said, there are the "creeping changes to water quality" outside the Pinelands that flow through the aquifer into the streams and wetlands, producing "dramatic changes in plants and animals" by, for example, lowering acidity and increasing nutrients.

Howard Boyd, a naturalist from Tabernacle whose "Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey" is the Bible of Pinelands ecology, is not optimistic about the future of threatened and endangered species there.

"Development is encroaching year by year, little by little," Boyd said.

The Pinelands Commission's Comprehensive Management Plan has two major areas, an inner core of 295,000 acres called the preservation area and a larger outer rim called the protection area.

It is in the latter area, Boyd said, "infringements are constantly occurring.

He cited the construction of Seneca High School in Tabernacle and the Sanctuary development in Evesham as examples.

"If these things continue," Boyd said, "50 years from now there won't be a protection area."

"And then it's the preservation area that will become subject to infringement."

Reach Richard Pearsall at (856) 486-2465 or rpearsall@courierpostonline.com

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