Commission will hold session on gypsy moth situation

I was interested in the cartoon "The Incredible Shrinking Governor," the opinion page and the letters to the editor still concerned about gypsy moths.

I think that because of the great impact this year due to the growing gypsy moth infestations, you should have added gypsy moths to the cartoon. This year there were 325,000 acres defoliated in New Jersey, much more than last year. Frustration from these disgusting forest-devastating insects is to be expected.

I was just wondering if anyone knows there has been no - zero - money allocated to control gypsy moths by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Commissioner Lisa Jackson even though there were requests to do so.

In Jackson there are 13,495.59 acres of state land that are not being managed for gypsy moths or any other detrimental forest problems.

If you review the recommended spray blocks for Jackson, you will see that a large amount of the recommended spray areas adjoin state lands that were not being sprayed, which would have rendered any spraying with Bt on Jackson lands, for which Jackson would have paid a large amount of money, useless.

Ask the people of Pemberton Township that did spray with Bt next to unsprayed state lands about how ineffective that spraying was.

The Jackson Shade Tree Commission will be holding a forum on gypsy moth control for 2008 once we have our egg mass survey and the recommended spray blocks from the Department of Agricul-ture.

All residents who were impacted by this disgusting insect should plan to attend. Look for notification in the newspapers and on the Jackson Township Web site. Please plan to attend to find out what you can do to protect your trees and property.

We will have the state forester and the Department of Agriculture gypsy moth program director in attendance, as well as Jackson Shade Tree Commission members, the Jackson forester and the Ocean County forester to answer questions.

Steve Chisholm

chair

Shade Tree Commission

Jackson