GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - A beautiful blue, sun-drenched sky greeted Stockton University students Kayla Mathes and Harry Dallmer as they began their spring break with a research hike into the Pine Barrens with professor Matthew Olson.
“I mean frolicking in the woods is like the life goal, so this is actually pretty great for me,” said Mathes, an Environmental Studies major from Warminster, Pennsylvania.
The warm, spring-like temperatures and gusty winds felt more like mid-May instead of mid-March. But as the brush crunched under his boots, Olson knew the scene wasn’t as idyllic as it seemed — especially for someone who studies how fire affects forests.
“It’s just been so dry,” the Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies said. “As we head into peak wildfire season, the drought is the most obvious when you drive by our lower-lying wetland areas. Usually, there’s some ponding and water about the soil surface this time of year. You just do not see that right now.”
All of New Jersey remains under an official drought warning, according to a March 13 New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Fire Service statement. The state enters spring this week following the third-driest January on record, well-below average precipitation throughout the winter and minimal precipitation in the fall. While precipitation in February was nearly normal, it was not enough to fully replenish reservoirs and groundwater.
“The ground is usually really spongy, and there are lots of mosses and stuff. But right now, it’s just really super dry, so when you walk on it, you can feel the mosses crumbling under your feet,” Olson said.
This time of year, Olson, whose research focuses on how forest vegetation responds to different types of man-made and natural disturbances, usually prepares to assist the state with prescribed burns in Stockton’s nearly 1,600-acre forest. A prescribed burn is when fires are purposely set to forests, grasslands and marshlands to meet land management objectives, including the reduction of potential fuel that can exacerbate wildfires.
Olson designates burn areas on the Galloway campus, located inside the Pinelands National Reserve, and takes students to see how prescribed burns work.
But, as of now, the Pine Barrens are so dry, the Forest Fire Service has limited its prescribed burns. According to Olson, the state is not planning any burns in the woods surrounding Stockton’s Forest.
“Prescribed fire plays a critical role in reducing wildfire risks, but persistent dry conditions have made it increasingly difficult to implement prescribed fire at the intended scale,” said Bill Donnelly, state firewarden and chief of the Forest Fire Service last week.
Since Jan. 1, the Forest Fire Service has responded to 381 wildfires statewide burning a total of 1,242 acres – a 266% increase in wildfires compared to the same period last year. Three of these wildfires were classified as “major wildfires,” each burning more than 100 acres. Just last week, the Forest Fire Service battled and contained a wildfire in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, that burned about 190 acres.
The peak wildfire season runs from now until mid-May as trees and underbrush dry out quickly, are still leafing out, relative humidity is generally low, and windy days are common, Olson said. Also, the sandy and porous soils in the Pine Barrens don’t retain moisture for long, increasing the potential for a fire even after rainfall.
Instead of tracking prescribed burns on campus, Olson is involving students in a longer-range project that began in 2015 to study how the forest regenerates after a disturbance.
The university cleared 2.5 acres of woods in its forest management area off Vera King Farris Drive to create a young forest habitat, half of which was left unburned while the other half has had three prescribed burns in the last 10 years.
“Part of our stewardship activities is to help enhance tree-level resistance to drought and insects, which can help improve the health of the larger forest,” Olson said.
Olson led Mathes and Dallmer out to the plot to take measurements of the various trees on the prescribed burn side. The students measured the height and diameter of several young short-leaf pines. They also studied the trees for sprouting, damage from animals and any burn scarring.
For Matthes, who grew up in what she called “a very hippie household that is very big into connecting with the Earth,” doing research like this is why she came to Stockton.
“Here, you are very hands-on,” said the junior, who’s also working toward a minor in Sustainability. “I have never not been in the woods learning. It’s just so much more fulfilling to see the actual process of doing research.”
Dallmer, of Medford, grew up in the Pine Barrens but admitted that when he first came to Stockton all the trees kind of looked the same.
“It’s awesome to see the very clear, stark differences between the burned management area in the clear cut,” said the 23-year-old, first-year Environmental Science major. “I have nothing but good things to say about Stockton and being able to actually put into practice what you’re learning in the classroom.”
