GUEST COLUMN
By:Sal Vuocolo
In an average year 280 million gallons of water fall on Tom Niederer’s 229-acre tree farm. Of this, 45 million gallons seep into the underground aquifers for the benefit of Mr. Niederer and his Hopewell Township neighbors who depend on wells for their water.
Most of the other water runs across his ground, filtered by his carefully managed forest, into Fiddler’s Creek, a state designated trout-quality stream, and thence to the Delaware River, to serve people downstream.
These calculations are from published rainfall figures and ground water recharge statistics provided by his municipal hydrologist. Oxygen, diverse wildlife and other valuable products are also produced by tree farms, but the big story, in these dry times, is water. Only now are some officials discovering what Mr. Niederer and other forest owners have long known: Trees slow down the water flow so that a minimum is lost to run-off and a maximum is captured by the soil and the aquifers. Even in heavy downpours the water runs clear through his woods.
Mr. Niederer, who holds an master’s degree in business administration and is a licensed Realtor, has been a tree farmer for 35 years. He says: "Tree farms are a perfect complement to traditional agriculture. Most farms, including the nearby Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed organic farm, irrigate by pumping large amounts of water from the aquifer. Tree farms help replenish that aquifer…. Most crop farms expose raw soil to erosion, no matter how carefully they are tilled. Bordering woodlands filter runoff and retard topsoil loss."
Tom Bullock, another tree farmer, is a Haddonfield attorney who specializes in farmland and real estate law. He has coined a name for the tree farms scattered across New Jersey.
"In my practice, I often deal with complex farmland problems resulting from stress placed upon the natural resource capabilities of land. The water produced by Tom Niederer’s farm is very precious. It can no longer be taken for granted. Tree farmers everywhere must do what Mr. Niederer has done and make proper stewardship a major objective of their management plan. When they do this I call it ‘Water Farming.’ Believe me, water farms are absolutely essential to helping the state deal with this current shortage."
Woodlands are essential in watersheds that feed public water needs, like the Newark Watershed and Spruce Run Reservoir. As watersheds are developed, they become less effective as supply systems. Residential development in watersheds is becoming a significant public policy concern as it threatens homes that rely on those same areas for their water supplies.
As Tom Niederer says, "This is not an easy economic or political situation. According to Hopewell Township’s hydrologist, it takes 5 to 13 acres to supply water for an average family. Thus, the many 1, 2 and 3-acre lot owners are over-consumers who, in turn, are demanding that development be stopped on tree farms and other open land in order to protect their wells. They elect like-minded officials who try to use zoning power to stop development, rather than purchasing the development rights at a fair value. For woodland owners the result is a devastating loss of land value. This same scenario is playing out across the state."
Agricultural preservation is popular across the state, but it has focused on preserving the farms with the most productive soils for traditional agriculture, not for water supply.
"That thinking must be modified," says Mr. Niederer. "Woodlands are as important as traditional farms. They are at least as valuable as the best traditional farms because they are water and oxygen filtration/recharge centers." He feels we need to preserve water farms because, "in this, the most densely populated state, there is no greater quality-of-life issue than water, especially in drought-stressed times."
Attorney Bullock says, "the municipalities and the state legislature are rightfully reluctant to use the power of eminent domain to acquire environmentally valuable land. A workable alternative is to consider reasonable appraisal values for lands that provide great public benefit, especially those that alleviate water crises. If a fairness ethic emerges here, development rights can be purchased, carefully managed forest land can remain in private hands and future water production will be assured."
Professional forester Doug Tavella consults with woodland owners in Hunterdon and elsewhere in the region. He says simply that "our human health and well-being is more closely associated with water than with any other single element."
Through recorded history, landowners in rural areas never have had to worry about finding water to drink. Today’s privately-owned woodlands, if preserved and viewed as "water farms," can keep that tradition going.