NJ Audubon Vice President of Stewardship Kristen Meistrell

The Vice President of Stewardship at New Jersey Audubon discusses the importance of educating people about trees and forests. They emphasize the need to connect children with nature and raise the next generation of conservationists. The conversation also touches on the decline of the Atlantic white cedar wetlands in New Jersey due to various factors such as unsustainable harvesting, pests, and climate change. The speaker suggests actions individuals can take, such as becoming a member of New Jersey Audubon, participating in volunteer events, planting native trees, and creating wildlife-friendly spaces in their own backyard. Where would we be without trees, right? But what about education? Is that continuing, at least here in New Jersey, at the level that it really needs to be? You know, educating about the importance of healthy trees and forests. And are we doing the right thing when it comes to educating people about protecting our trees here in New Jersey? My guest, who's joining me here at the RNJ Morning Program, is the Vice President of Stewardship at New Jersey Audubon. And she's got some great information to share with us. And also about an important initiative that's underway now about saving the Atlantic white cedar wetlands, which are important here to New Jersey. But we have Kristen Maestrel, who was with us at the RNJ Morning Program today. Kristen, it's Burt Barron, WRNJ Radio. How are you doing this morning? Good, how are you? Thanks so much for having me. Happy Arbor Day. Is it a celebratory day at Audubon? Is there, like, cake and celebrating and things like that on Arbor Day? It's a big day for you guys, right? Yeah, I mean, I wish that there was cake and all sorts of things. But really, almost every day is Arbor Day for us. Wow. Our mission is to connect people with nature and steward the nature of today for all people of tomorrow. And so protecting and ensuring our trees are healthy is just part of what we do every day. And you do an amazing job about it. I'm concerned about the education going forward, Kristen, because it seemed like it was a big part. I grew up here in New Jersey. I went through the public school system. And it seemed like there was a little bit more emphasis on education about our environment when I was a little kid. I don't know if the education component is continuing at the level that it should be. From your perspective, in your view, with your work with New Jersey Audubon, are we doing a good enough job of educating that next generation of people who are going to be in charge of all this someday? So I think it sort of depends, right? I mean, we really need to make sure that we're connecting children with nature. And that can be a very challenging aspect. It's also, right, it's very, our ecosystem and our forests, they're complicated and complex. And so trying to really understand what our forests and what our ecosystem needs can be a little bit challenging. So I think we can always be doing a better job at really connecting everybody with nature and really showing them what we can do, what we have here in New Jersey, and making sure that we're, making sure that we are raising the next generation of conservationists. Yeah, that's important. You know what? If mistakes were made in the past, let's work towards correcting them. And let's get on a path that's going to benefit everybody so that for generations to come, things will be better than before it was for the one before. I think that's what the mission is for everyone, whether it's Audubon or any environmental group. So that's such an important thing. Also about, I was hoping you could talk about today, Kristen, something that I just learned about this week, and I'm glad you were available today, regarding the Atlantic white cedar wetlands, which at one point covered a gigantic portion of our state. It's dwindling, and this is a problem. Can you talk about what's going on there? Yeah, so Atlantic white cedar once covered 125,000 acres of forest within New Jersey. It's now down to about 25,000 acres, so a pretty steep decline. There's a whole wide variety of things that are going on. So first, Atlantic white cedar is a pretty picky tree, so it needs a lot of sunlight to be able to regenerate and grow as seedlings. But also, it needs just the right amount of water, but not too much water. It's pretty prone to saltwater, so it doesn't like a lot of saltwater. It can't really tolerate uncontrollable wildfires. It's pretty prone to storm events, so it can get knocked over pretty easily. And then when it's also growing, white-tailed deer, which we have an overabundance of, really favor the Atlantic white cedar over a lot of other tree species. So then when you take all of that and go back in time, Atlantic white cedar is a really important timber species as well. But for quite some time, there was some unsustainable harvesting. So you look at all of this, and that is partly why we're losing Atlantic white cedar. So we've got the gypsy moth. We've got those really nasty bugs that are eating everything. What are those other bugs that are popping up all over the place and destroying trees? We've got to worry about those, too. And now we have another tree that we have to see. You've got your hands full nowadays at Audubon. You guys are busy with this. Oh, yeah, we really are. We try and stay on top of all of the threats that are happening to our forest and really stay on top of the scientific evidence and really looking at what we should be doing to ensure that we have a healthy forest for our future. Yeah, the spotted lanternfly, that's the one. That must keep you guys up at night, I'm guessing. Yeah, I mean, the spotted lanternfly. The other one is emerald ash borer, which has destroyed thousands of acres of ash trees, especially in northern New Jersey. In the pine barrens, we have the southern pine beetle, which goes after our pitch pine, which is really vital to the pine barrens. So there are a lot of different threats. And as we have a changing climate, those threats just get even more abundant and intense. Yeah, that's true. We're marking Arbor Day today with Kristen Maestrel. She is the Vice President of Stewardship at New Jersey Audubon. And we're just talking about some things that we could do going forward to make Jersey a better place. Kristen, is there anything that I can do right now? What can everyday citizens do, be it small, be it large, to have a positive impact on our environment going forward? I'm just a guy from Jersey. What could I possibly do? Yeah, well, I'm just a girl from Jersey. So, you know, we can always... There's tons of things that we can be doing. The first thing is, I would say, go to our website, www.njaudubon.org. You can become a member there, which helps to support the work that we're doing. You'll also be able to get access to all of our events, which includes volunteer events, which makes a huge difference. And then you can also see when our upcoming native plant sales are happening. So that'll be happening across the state. You'll be able to get some native plants, including native trees, and plant them right in your backyard. If you have a backyard and you're looking for guidance on how to make your backyard good for wildlife, we have a program called Garden for Wildlife, where you can learn all about what it takes to build your own ecosystem in your own backyard. And then also, if you have a larger piece of property, whether it's a forest or a farm or a combination of both, you can contact us and we can actually help you get set up with a variety of federal programs, like the Working Lands for Wildlife program, which actually will give funding to help do some of this work on your own property. So there's a lot of things that you can do, whether you have a small backyard or you have a big property. Good stuff. Kristen Maestrel, Vice President of Stewardship at New Jersey Audubon. Happy Arbor Day to you. And thank you so much for your time this morning. Really great information that you shared with us here in Northwest Jersey. And we greatly appreciate it. So thank you again. Thank you so much.