You Saved the Horn... Now Save Access to the Pinelands!

a request

The last time I asked you to sign a petition, it was to Save the Horn in Holmdel, to protect the radio telescope which helped prove the Big Bang Theory. That worked! The town has purchased the land, and a park where you can visit the historic labs and equipment is under development. This time, it is to save access to over 300 miles of established roads in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

In 1968 the New Jersey Pinelands might have become a supersonic jetport. The outrage over the desecration of this source of water that feeds the region gave us the Pinelands Preserve, the first of its kind. Not a state forest, not a national park. It is protected by its own law, but that law didn’t say the state actually had to enforce their own protections.

There are over 500 miles of roads through the Pinelands, which are used every day by people visiting the area or just passing through. Most are unpaved and many are not well maintained; some have existed since travel by stagecoach was the fastest method, others are fire roads that were not intended for traffic, but were never marked, and are now used regularly to reach spots accessible by no other trails. Since 2015, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance—of which I was once a member—has been working with the Department of Environmental Protection to block access to over 300 miles of these roads as they see fit. Some are “near” “sensitive” areas, but no definition of either has been provided to the public. The 2015 plan sparked a different kind of outrage.

People who’ve lived near the Pinelands for generations, who have hiked, kayaked, hunted, fished, bird watched, and explored by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, and motor vehicle, found that their preserve, which they have used and protected, was going to be off limits. That plan was scrapped, but the people behind it bided their time and tried a new tack in 2021: they found evidence of illegal off-roading and manufactured a crisis on social media, a documentary, and a campaign to stop the “destruction.” To stop it, they wanted you to have to buy a permit to enter the area and not get a ticket.

Anyone who explores the Pinelands, like myself—if only for the past few years—has probably run into people on dirt bikes. A few times, I have. I have never seen them off the roads. On occasional I’ve seen tracks where they should not be. One thing I have not seen is law enforcement. Over the years I think I’ve seen law enforcement twice. Once at Bass River, on a paved road. Another time on a sand road near Forked River, looking for unlicensed ORVs (off-road vehicles). We need a lot more of that before we start closing roads.

I get it, it’s expensive. It’s easier to put up pylons or dump fallen trees to block trails. But that won’t stop ORVs, legal or not. It will only stop cars from using established roads. Unless your intention is to reduce usage of the area to protect wildlife that crosses these roads, which is a reasonable goal, but a much harder sell than “destructive rednecks ruining sensitive habitat.” I’ve attended many meetings of the PPA and there is a contingent who would remove all roads, including highways, through the Pinelands if they magically could. This would save the lives of many animals.

How would we get there? These sound like the same people who would be against train lines, which existed through the Pinelands previously. The Pinelands, prior to protection, were cut down for shipbuilding, mined for clay and sand, and cut down and burned for charcoal. There’s little if any old growth left; the Pinelands renews itself with fire. If it was anything approaching a pristine wilderness, with only a few roads through it, this could make sense. But when you’ve had roads through it for a hundred years, and people who live there, it becomes an extremist position.

I am all for strict enforcement against illegal off-road vehicles and anyone who damages habitat by taking vehicles off the trail in the Pinelands Preserve. Just because it is not easy does not mean we do not try, and instead punish those who follow the rules by denying them access to places they’ve loved and visited responsibly for many decades. When the DEP asked for input, I was one who selected nearly all the roads as ones I found useful. I want to explore the whole area! These were discarded from the survey, apparently (there were 1610 of us.)

I have already contacted my representatives, and their staff has mentioned that many people have called and written to voice their opposition to this new attempt to close access to the Pinelands. If you are a New Jersey resident, please sign the petition below, and use the Open Trails NJ Contact Your Representatives page to write your own personal message to your representatives. If you are out-of-state, or do not have the time or inclination to write your politicians, here is a petition you can sign.

If they cared about damage, they would lobby for enforcement. It is my opinion that the Pinelands Preservation Association, who also owns Pinelands Adventures, which sells kayak trips and delivers you by driving a school bus down these same roads, wants to limit access so they are the only game in town. Exploring local nature preserves is one of the few things Americans can do these days that doesn’t cost anything. Demanding that you need a permit, and closing roads so kayakers and nature lovers can’t reach spots within the million acres of the preserve… unless they have a guide from the “Alliance”… is not a future I want for the Pinelands. That doesn’t sound like an adventure, it sounds like a monopoly.