Officials fear that more than 1,600 acres of forest could be in danger (Jan. 5)
By: Marisa Maldonado
PLUMSTED Gypsies are a traveling people, never setting roots in one place. Gypsy moths, rather, bunk into one tree and slowly defoliate it.
Officials fear that more than 1,600 acres of forest in the township could be in danger if they do not kill as many of the moths as possible this spring while their eggs are hatching.
That’s why Plumsted officials hope to be included in a New Jersey Department of Agriculture program in which the state would spray affected forests with a chemical designed to kill up to 65 percent of the state’s gypsy moth population.
The Department of Agriculture was scheduled to hold a meeting today (Thursday) for municipal officials to learn more about the program.
"We’re getting to the point where if we do not do something this year, we may be in for a massive outbreak and could lose some valued forestland in our community," Mayor Ron Dancer said.
In most years a naturally growing fungus kills moth eggs, but lack of rain last spring prevented its growth.
This year most of the land in Plumsted at risk is around the intersection of routes 539 and 528, extending to the township’s border with Jackson. County-preserved forests and state Fish, Game and Wildlife reserve lands could be significantly altered, the mayor said.
The state charged $28 per acre to spray in 2005 meaning spraying the township’s 1,640 total acres would cost about $46,000. But the mayor said that cost could increase this year because of higher fuel prices.
The township has applied for a grant from the U.S. Forest Service to cover up to half of that cost.
The spraying would happen sometime in early spring, said Joe Zoltowski, chief of the state Bureau of Pest and Disease Control. The state would not know the exact time until several days before scattering the chemicals, as the spraying date depends on weather and foliage conditions.
The township would be required to post notices in newspapers and mail letters to any residents who would be affected.
Plumsted residents already have noticed eggs in their bushes and trees, Mayor Dancer said. Twenty eight people called the municipal building after officials requested anyone who had seen gypsy moth eggs to contact them, he said.
Other towns also are looking to participate in the spraying program. Millstone officials said last month that they will apply for inclusion about 873 acres in that township have been found to have sufficient moth infestation.
Upper Freehold, however, does not have enough of an infestation problem to qualify for state spraying. But two areas the corner of Holmes Mill and Burlington Path roads and the municipal building on Route 528 contain mild levels of egg masses, Municipal Clerk Barbara Bascom said.
The state recommended that Upper Freehold contact the Monmouth County Shade Tree Commission if spraying is needed, Ms. Bascom said.
Plumsted also has had minor gypsy moth infestations in previous years that, like Upper Freehold this year, did not require spraying. But Mayor Dancer said this is a precautionary measure to prevent outbreaks such as one in the late 1980s when gypsy moths defoliated nearly one million trees statewide.
The gypsy moths are clustered in the same areas of the township that were defoliated in the 1980s, the mayor said. But there are less trees in those areas now, he said, as more homes have been built over the last 15 years.
"I remember the trees being stripped and stark naked of all greens," Mayor Dancer said. "It looked devastating."