In Chapter 9 of "Protecting New Jersey's Environment" by Thomas Belton, he starts off by recalling his childhood where trees were almost foreign to him. They were a wonder, but they were rare within Jersey City. He comments that as he grew older, he gathered an appreciation for the trees. He greatly appreciated the trees and all they gave us. He even took botany in college.
In this chapter, Thomas Belton makes a particularly touching comment about how most older trees nowadays are found alive and well in protected areas. Otherwise the trees are a lot younger. I found this comment touching because it is very true. Humanity has such a dislike for trees. For some reason, most humans just chop down trees without thinking to build upon the land to make an extra buck. If trees are planted, they are young. But without trees, we would lack clean air. We would lack a habitat to many creatures. We would lack colorful leaves. We would lack the glories we take for granted every day.
New Jersey is surrounded by two urban cities, Philadelphia and New York City. New Jersey also contains a large population which is densely packed within the state. We are lucky though because although our woods are densely packed, we have so much diversity within the soil, trees, and animals that live within the state. There was a super fun fact located in this chapter and it was that three out of the five major forest regions of the United States are located within New Jersey. This is really impressive and accounts for the immense amount of diversity that takes place within our densely packed state.
Forest Services is a protection service that fights against the urbanization of the land. This service fights to preserve the land we have in New Jersey that is highly diverse like the Highlands. Although New Jersey has been coined as the 'Garden State', the amount of land that is being farmed upon has decreased by 50%. This actually means that that land has either been developed or abandoned. Which is very shocking considering how densely packed the state is.
Lastly, two-thirds of the state's tree are younger than 60 years old. Now, naturally there are natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, and much more that may knock down a tree. But a lot of the tree problems are caused by man. We destruct the land and therefore, have a very young tree population. I think this is crazy. When I think of this statistic, I think of the land that is protected as having the older trees and every other area having trees younger than 60.
This chapter was filled with major surprises, but I was mostly hung up on the tree facts. I thought this chapter contained a lot of facts about the trees in New Jersey, that I wouldn't have known otherwise unless I read this book. I believe as a future educator, it is important to teach on topics such as trees since they provide us with so many benefits. They are also beautiful to look at. If I were to put this in a lesson then I would definitely emphasize the importance of having trees and why the Highlands and Pine Barrens are so important to protect. People should be made aware of the importance.