Chapter 9, called "The Woodlands," was actually a lot more positive than many of the previous chapters. Though I thought it was going to be sad when it talked about the forest fires of the Pine Barrens, it turns out these natural disasters are not all that bad. True, some of them are detrimental, especially when they destroy the homes of those living around them, or result in deaths like the one in 1963, but they can also be really healthy for forests as well. As I read in this chapter, as well as another book for my geography class, the Native Americans and other indigenous peoples used to burn the forests on purpose to encourage growth of berry and nut shrubs and shoo away insects, among other reasons. Today we burn the forest to bring back nutrients to the soil, like carbon and nitrogen. Belton's story about his experience with the prescribed burn was fascinating and scary at the same time. I could not imagine being there, watching as this huge fire engulfs the beautiful forest. Even scarier is the thought of what those firefighters who were supposed to stop the fire were feeling as they saw it approach them closer and closer. Though they are highly trained, fire is still an untamed beast, and can get out of hand really quickly, especially when it has so much fuel to feed on.
When he was telling this story, it brought me back to some memories of mine of warmer and less stressful times when my family goes down to the Jersey shore. We pass through the Pine Barrens as we drive south on the Parkway, and I remember seeing many of the trees burned to a crisp, and wondering what had happened. Now I know that either it was due to a forest fire set off by accident, possibly by the Warren Grove Gunnery Range, or hopefully it was one of the scheduled fires conducted by the NJ Forest Service. Either way, it was still a sorry sight to see the trees all blackened and barren. I will have to look this summer to see if there is any regrowth.
In addition, I was happy to hear how New Jersey has tried to protect our forests, and how we, despite being the most densely populated state, still have great biodiversity in our plants and animals, and we have "3 out of the 5 major forest regions in the US" (Belton 151). We also have several laws put into place to preserve our forests and parks to protect the natural wildlife we still have left. However, this does not mean, unfortunately, that it is all protected, and we continue to lose parts of forests, causing forest fragmentation.
I know personally I hate seeing the wooded areas near me cut down to build new housing complexes that will probably stay vacant because people cannot afford them, or there are too many homes for people to fill. My mom and I talk about it all the time, and feel so terribly for the poor animals that are kicked out of their homes because of this forest fragmentation. I live in a wooded part of Boonton, and we have several acres of woods surrounding my home. We love it. It is quiet, private, and we get to watch the wildlife around us. My mom's parents actually built the house in the 70's I believe, and she has seen her dad fight for the land to stay conserved and protected while he was alive. Many times the town has fought to build a road through our woods, and he and several of the old neighbors fought to stop it. Thankfully, it never happened, and the swampland and woods remained untouched. In addition, my mom has mentioned that she has seen an increase in the types of animals around us, like foxes, cayotes, bears, and turkeys. When she was younger she never saw these animals in the woods behind us, but now that there has been more construction and deforestation around us the animals have less and less land to live in, and so they have become more visible to us.
I hope New Jersey stops the destruction of forests soon, and does not allow any more contractors to build on more land, because pretty soon we are going to be living in a concrete jungle as Belton said at the end of the chapter. We do not need more homes, there are already so many vacant ones. Just knock them down and build a nice and newer one on top. It will benefit everyone way more than the destruction of our forests. We need them for our health, and for the health of the other animals and plants that live there.