tonight restoring the damage caused by

climate change the once lush atlantic

white cedar forests along new jersey's

coastline are now pale in color and

barely surviving due in large part to

rising sea levels and increasing storm

surges rushing salt water into fragile

freshwater ecosystems leaving behind

what experts dubbed ghost forests as ted

goldberg reports the state is now

engaged in the largest restoration

effort for this tree species

in the nation it's part of our ongoing

series peril and promise focusing on the

human stories of climate change

atlantic white cedars tower over the

Brendan T. Byrne state forest new

jersey's department of environmental

protection wants to keep it that way for

a long time my kids will will go there

in their old age and see what you're

seeing today i think things will break

our way right because we're putting the

investment in the planning and the

preparedness forward to identify the

places where it like atlantic white

cedar can thrive as we re-establish it

it takes about a hundred years for the

atlantic white cedars to grow to be this

tall and along the way there are a lot

of dangers that can cause them to die

out in large groups and become part of

what's known as a ghost forest basically

dead trees

and oftentimes they

they're standing dead

and they

weather or decay slowly and so you end

up with these gray you know barkless

trees that can lathrop co-authored a

study that looked at why we're seeing

more of these ghost forests he says it's

likely because of higher sea levels and

flooding from storm surges as the sea

levels rise the

groundwater

underneath the land also rises and so as

it gets closer to the surface it starts

to

basically

saturate the soils and so a number of

tree species

can't live in situations where there's

you know super saturated

soils which include atlantic white

cedars new jersey used to have 125

thousand acres of them now it's closer

to 25 000 thanks to human activity and

natural factors like this beaver dam

we need to create enough resiliency in

the system for beavers to exist for

wildfires to occur

just for natural mortality so that's why

it's so important that we put it back on

the landscape put it in different places

so that we can have some spots the

beaver's going to impact but we can also

have places that will continue to thrive

the dep is spending 19 million dollars

to try and restore 10 000 acres of these

trees

bill zipsee says he's seen a lot of

progress in his 22 years on the job you

could stand here and see across these

trees and see all the way down to the

next road and where the pine stand was

so you it was the trees were maybe this

this tall you know about up to my my

belly

uh now they're you know 30 feet tall 35

feet tall so

and there were

you know now there's probably over 5000

trees per acre on this site it is a

special forest when you go see it

it's beautiful bob williams is a

professional forester who has been

critical of the dep in the past he likes

their plan to bring back the cedars and

wishes it went a step further

we need to address the adjacent

fire hazard

of the upland pine forest

it doesn't make any sense to spend 19

million dollars

successfully restoring the special

ecosystem

and then have it burned up

which could happen

williams knows that these trees won't

grow to their potential in his lifetime

he's thinking beyond that

you're doing something for generations

to come

so that's so that some school class 100

years from now goes out there

they'll have a video

and have an appreciation for what forest

management is

and an appreciation for cleaner water

the root structure of these trees

provides an incredible water quality

benefit which for the people of the

southern part of the state and western

parts of the state that don't have large

water systems carrying their drinking

water they are relying upon these trees

to clean the water that they

drink and bathe in and feed their kids

every day

it's a tall task for the state trying to

help these trees grow past obstacles

both man-made and natural

for nj spotlight news i'm ted goldberg

lead funding for peril and promise is

provided by dr p roy vagalos and diana t

vagalos major support is provided by the

mark haas foundation and sue and edgar

Wachenheim III and theCheryl and Philip

Milstein family

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