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Avalon Targets Invasive Vegetation In Dunes; Forbids ‘Midnight’ Pruning
By Leslie Truluck, Cape May County Herald
 AVALON — The borough is cracking down on which vegetation can and cannot be planted, or removed, from maritime forest in the high dune system.
Japanese black pine, an invasive species, has caused concern for diversity of species as it dominated indigenous plants and created a monoculture.
With all the coastal regulations in place, dune property owners may have one more to consider. They may be required to undergo a review and approval process if they want to tend to vegetation on or near their properties, to ensure it is suitable for maritime forest.
The borough is sowing a plan, including a memorandum of understanding with dune area residents, to address areas where invasive species have grown on or near private property.
Potential spread of wildfire, loss of animal habitat and food sources, increasing numbers of insects and disease and lack of biological diversity are among borough concerns for invasive species in the dunes, particularly Japanese black pines, which have the genetic capability to grow up to 80 feet.
Joseph Lomax, of Lomax Consulting Group LLC of Court House, who worked on the borough’s master plan in the 1970s, returned to the borough to work on its vegetation plan. He has surveyed the borough’s entire dune system between Seventh and 80th streets over the past two years.
Dunes have lost their ecological integrity, Lomax said, stating the ecologists’ idiom “with diversity comes stability.”
Loss of native vegetation, due to the Japanese black pine, has negatively impacted animal habitat and food sources. The pines don’t serve as food source or habitat to replace lost native vegetation. Nor is it a good food base for migrating birds and butterflies, Lomax said.
Cones drop from trees creating a layer of flammable kindling that could exacerbate a wildfire and make it difficult to extinguish. Some pines are not far from residences.
“The wildfire issue is important to note because pines are densely lined adjacent to beach paths and the flammable tinder that accumulates could threaten beachfront residents in the event of a fire,” Lomax said.
Pines grow close together and shade out the forest floor, therefore only poison ivy can grow between them because of lack of sunlight. Recently some pines have begun to die from insects that carry disease.
Mature Japanese black pines preclude any further succession of indigenous plants because they shade out the forest floor, Lomax said. Once removed, native plants and shrubbery with height diversity, like American holly and black oak, can be planted.
“Dunes are an asset to protect public safety and properties,” Environmental Commission Chairman Dr. Brian Reynolds said.
Lomax said sand on the dunes is “like money in the bank,” in that sand on the front of the dune replaces that lost to erosion on the beaches.
The borough plans to systematically replace the invasive pines with indigenous vegetation, starting with a pilot area at 74th Street, where pines are thickest.
Departments have put together a Dune Vegetation Management Plan (DVMP) that outlines its course of action and vegetation regulations dune property owners must abide.
The DVMP, in earnest, is remediation of plantings of the invasive pines done after the beach eroding storm of 1962, when it was believed the pines would serve as a positive stronghold. Japanese black pines were thought to cement dunes together because of their thick roots.
In the one-block 74th Street pilot area there are over 300 Japanese Black Pines including saplings and adults, Lomax said. The borough can’t cut them all down at the same time because that would expose dunes to wind and potential sand loss.
Therefore, the borough will leave no more than 15 feet between trees and remove them in such a way to leave a staggered row to block wind.
Once areas are established between the Japanese black pines, and indigenous brush is planted in between, then the borough will remove only the aerial part of the trees. Roots will remain intact because pulling the dense roots out could damage dunes.
No heavy equipment will be used to remove the Japanese black pines in order not to injure the dunes. “There will be full replacement with diversity,” Lomax said.
However it will be a slow progression. Engineering firm Hatch, Mott, MacDonald will methodically track progress and retain information on maps.
The DVMP was approved by the Environmental Commission and is subject to approval by the Planning Board, for the borough to gain a general or master permit to work in the dunes. Then it’s on to a vote by Borough Council.
With a master permit, residents will not need to go before the Planning Board in order to tend to vegetation on their properties, Business Administrator Andrew Bednarek said.
“We didn’t want to create a bureaucracy to bring all tree maintenance to the Planning Board,” Bednarek said. Some residents, who may have grown frustrated with vegetation growing near their properties, have “inappropriately cut vegetation,” Lomax said referring to them as “midnight cutters.”
There is an area in the DVMP that discusses maintenance of private and public properties to eliminate this “midnight” pruning and trimming.
It is illegal to remove vegetation from any borough-owned property, Council President Charles Covington said. Dunes property owners, who want to trim or prune, may need to gain borough approval through the Environmental Commission.
Solicitor Stephen Barse said the memorandum of understanding between Avalon and dune area residents will enable the borough to avoid inconsistency when working on vegetation at the request of the property owner.
“If work is done at the request of the property owner, then the property owner will cover that expense,”
Barse explained. The memo will address the delineation of the costs and processes so all property owners are treated equally, Barse said. He is currently working on language for the memorandum.
The memorandum of understanding between dune property owners and borough is only necessary when the borough works on parcels adjacent to private property, Barse said. Some Japanese black pines have spread from borough property to private property.
The DVMP explicitly lists acceptable vegetation for the dunes, which includes black cherry, pitch pine and red maple trees and sweet fern, winterberry and beach plum shrubs, and Virginia creeper and trumpet vines.
Plants were selected because they are drought tolerant, less susceptible to disease, less prone to wildfire and/or known to provide better habitat for wildlife, the plan states.
Covington commented that the vegetation plan was “well researched.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Community Forestry Management Program may provide funding for the borough to buy indigenous plants.
Changes to the borough’s dune ordinances will be subject to DEP approval.
A public hearing will take place at both Borough Council and Planning/Zoning Board meetings. The borough’s combined Planning/Zoning Board’s next meeting is Jan. 19. Council’s next meeting is Jan. 13. A draft of the DVMP is available on Avalon’s Web site.
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