No more 'ghost forests': NJ bringing 10,000 acres of Atlantic white cedars to Pine Barrens

Thousands of acres of Atlantic white cedar — once integral to early Jersey Shore settlers — have been decimated by climate change, storm surges and sea level rise, but a new state initiative aims to rebuild these coastal forests. Watch the video above to see the remains of those forests in the Meadowlands.

Once common throughout the New Jersey's Pinelands, "ghost forests" of dead Atlantic white cedars now scar the landscape. Rising salt water levels along the coast, climate change and stronger storms are to blame, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The department pledged Thursday to restore some 10,000 acres of Atlantic white cedar throughout the Pine Barrens.

"This is the largest forest restoration project ever undertaken in New Jersey and the largest ever in the nation restoring Atlantic white cedar," DEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said in a news release.

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Trees will be planted at higher elevations than where they grew originally, places that are "less vulnerable to rising seas and saltwater intrusion," he said.

About two-thirds of Atlantic white cedars forests that originally covered New Jersey are gone, leaving just 40,000 acres of cedar forest remaining, according to the environmental organization New Jersey Audubon. The DEP estimates 115,000 acres of Atlantic white cedar forest covered New Jersey at the time of European settlement, who valued the wood for its pest- and rot-resistant qualities. The wood became a popular material for shake roofs, clapboard siding, fences and ship construction.

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"Today we again need to depend on the majestic cedars, not to build objects from their wood, but to grow wood to help remove and store the carbon dioxide that the success of our forefathers has generated," New Jersey Pinelands Commission Chairman Richard Prickett said in a news release. 

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The trees serve as "carbon sinks" by absorbing the greenhouse gas and storing it, according to the DEP.

The white cedar forests also are "critical" in maintaining water purity in the Pinelands and provide important habitat for native plants and animals, agency officials said. 

"Atlantic white cedar forests are very special places, and you know it as soon as you step into one," Pinelands Preservation Alliance Executive Director Carleton Montgomery said in a statement. "They are quiet, sublime and magnificent. Restoring these forests on a landscape level to the Pinelands will certainly provide a great many benefits to the region’s ecological diversity. But restoring these forests will provide many intangible benefits as well, as places for people to enjoy the simple grandeur of nature for many generations to come."

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.