A Shameful Harvest

The following is a letter from a member of the NJPineBarrens.com forums to the Pinelands Commission regarding the use of what is essentially recycled trash and mulch to grade the sides of roads by the Ocean County Road Department in the Pinelands.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have brought this problem up three times before. Starting around six years ago I sent letters and emails to everyone I can think of to stop it. I received many promises; from Freeholders, Assemblymen, and even from the parties responsible for doing this. What I am talking about is Ocean County Road Department's habit of leveling the sides of County Pineland roads using ground up mulch and other material from other rural areas of Ocean County. The main problem is that this material is loaded with garbage.

Six weeks ago they did it again, in the Pinelands Preservation District along Lacey Road by Bamber Lake. After the rains, the junk that is mixed up with this material revealed itself. I picked up the below harvest basket of items out of this fill in just 30 minutes.

Your eyes do not deceive you. In just this one random sample, besides the wire and metal on the left, there is an inner tube, plastic action figure toys, plastic bottles, caps, and pipe fittings, a hunk of rebar, bits of wire, junk from home gardens, tennis and wiffle balls, a hair brush, plastic eating utensils, decorative car trim, house insulation, and even a beaded slipper.

This is outrageous to do this, especially in the Pine Barrens, where we are trying to preserve the clean white sands and beautiful roadsides. The below photo shows what it looks like (background). You can see the familiar white sand roadside and typical huckleberry and blueberry plants are gone. In its place grows foreign home garden and lawn plants

What to do? First, the Lacey Township Police Department should issue Ocean County a ticket for littering if they see them putting this material down again. Secondly, legislation should be introduced (fostered by The Pinelands Commision) that prohibits doing this in the Pinelands. And thirdly, the sand plants that reside in the pinelands should be taxed in sand to be used to lay on the roadsides that need it. They certainly should not allow to take and take and not give back something to the Pinelands they are creating holes in.

Many years ago, when I first surfaced this problem, Ocean County told me they were going to fire the people responsible. That is a stupid, wrongheaded solution. No workers should be reprimanded or fired. They are only doing what they are told to do (think Abu Ghraib). This practice must be outlawed by legislation. It has been proven again and again (to me) that there is no other way.

Feel free to foward as required to help me stop this disgusting practice.

Bob Moyer
Bamber

PS: Apparantly, Lacey Township is doing a similar thing (though not nearly as bad) on a smaller scale. On the road leading to the dam at Bamber Lake, they laid down a surface of rubble that consists of broken bits of concrete, brick, and macadam. No longer do we have the familiar sandy roadside to walk down to the lake on. Farewell to nice barefoot summertime walks down to the lake.