Herald & Lantern 8 August '84 71

Postcard The Pines By Terrence D Moore. Executive Director of the New )ersey Pinelaods Commission.

Most people call them swamps. Others sometimes refer to them as junk land. They coven a quarter of the PinelaokJs and are critical to its ecological viability. They are wetlands. Wetlands, simply, are those area6 which contain enough water on or in the soil to support the growth of ••hydrophytes", plants that grow in water or very wet earth. Wetlands are more than jut areas that go squish" when one jumps up and down. fde land / dry at l a foot surface, can be to basic coastal flooded low and jat contr. Garden *oute 47 Bay will with a >asta I ; tor the ' nelands types of

inland wetlands Atlantid white cedar swamps are easy to identify by the presence of often majestic cedar trees (those with the peelintfhark > HA mi WOO I) swamps are characterized by red maple, black gum and sweetbay trees. They are easy to identify in the fall when the red and orange coloring of the leaves stands out against the green background of the pines. Pitch pine lowlands are just that — low lying areas containing this somewhat unusually shaped version of the pine family. About 10 sJiercent of the Pinelands is composed of such lowlands. » / Bogs are areas with phrubby vegetation. They are often abandoned cranberry bogs or they may occur naturally in depressions and are known

locally as "spungs" (rhymes with "rung"i. SPl'N(.s ARK often sites of archaeological interest because Indians found their perimeters to be suitable for camping. Inland marshes, including areas called savannas, are identified by the presence of grasses They are primarily found along stream channels Lakes, ponds, rivere, and streams are afsp) considere<Mv?t+4Mids^'^ What's so important about wetlands'' Let's begin with the fact that 80 percent of all rare and endangered plants and animals in the Pinelands are found in these locations. Some of these plants and animals 'exist in few other places in the world WETLANDS ALSO influence the quality and quantity of the precious

water resources of the Pinelands They a.1 st in * j keeping water clean by I removing and storing ex- I cess nutrients and serving I as settling basins for silt I from upland erosion. Wetlands store water I during dry periods and play an important role in flood prevention by retaining water during storms. Of equal importance is the pleasant discovery that the Pinelands cedar swamps, bogs, and marshes provide some of the most beautiful vistas in the region. PRIOR TO the adoption of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan, thousands of acres of wetlands were lost to unwise filling and development The result has been flooded backyards and faulty septic systems. Development is now prohibited in the wetlands of the Pines A bill pending in the state legislature sponsored by Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden w ould prohibit development in wetlands throughout New Jersev Next time: Meanwhile Back at the Reservation.

i — ^County Library | J ' by Kathleen Duffy

j/ Fodor's travel gdufesare tine for real-life travelers, but libraries als6 serve the armchair types who traverse only mental landscapes During the vacation season., vicarious travelers everywhere look lor books that tell them as much1 about the people as they do the landmarks. The titles below are the best of the crop Edward Abbey's Beyond tiw Wall is for anyone loojii n g to e s c a p^p^fn e claustrophobic, of urban lite Abbey points the way to such fresh air pursuits as v hunting grizziey bears yer Alaska or exporh|g me , "ancient dust" of the Weal American *Deserf a-n Sonoma's Piniate region. Abbey's Desmt Solitaire . A Season in the Wilderness is about the 33,000-acre Arches National Monument Abbey, was sole cusfcod ian for three seasons Edwin Teale, the famous naturalist, wrote in the New York Times Book Review. "This book may well seem like a ride on a bucking bronco. It is rough, tough and combative. The author is a rebel and an eloquent loner. His is a passionately felt, deeply poetic ^book. It has philosophy. It has humor. It has its share of yherve-tingling advent>n^s...set down in lean, ,^/racing prose, in a close-knit j style of power and beauty." i ABBEY'S Down the River is an invitation to think like a mountain and feel like a river. Fasten your life jacket and be grateful that Abbey's prose is endowed with humor. He succeeds in revealing the great pleasures" of our American wilderness — or the ramnants thereof. Ab- « bey writes: "For 23 years now r ve been floating • rivers. Always downstream, the easy and natural way. The way Huck Finn and Jim did it, ^a Salto and Marquette, tne mountain men and Major Powell..." The author tells abofit some of his recent boat • trips and mourns thd imminent loss of so mamKJning^, now going. goin^fl|ore ^ sold — down thwjKer. Keyner Bonbfijij i&erjes in Americajfcser^'iswrlt-

ten by a "desert freak", a delighted, intrigued but puzzled visitor to the arid .land of the American Southwest. What delights him is the scenery, from the Big Country of Wyoming to the alkali flats of Death Vajley. landscapes of staring sunlight and luminous mists, grudging oases and droughtresistant rreosati bushes. What intrigues him are the works of man: the ancient pueblos and the modern observatories. the fantasies of Las Vegas and the Spanish missions. ■*yFrank Lloyd Write and Paolo £oleri WUAT PUZZLES him is his own response: the discovery that the desert is beautiful in hi^cjeyes in a way that n<fcj©£ker landscape hadv^^r been for him . a discovery Unsettling enought to send him back in search of the possible roots af this response and to seek explanation in the works of writers as diverse as Gaston Bachelud. Joan Didion. Ray Bradbury and the early explorers Bill Barich's Traveling Light gives where Barich's interest lie, and his intersts include horse racing, fishing and English beer He takes the traveler from trout streams in northern California to Florentine palazzi. Teetotaling nonanglers who've never been near a backstretch needn't despair. Barich makes you care about a well-drawn pint of bitter whether you're thirsty or not. PIERRE BERTON'S Drifting Home is the firsthand account of a raft trip down the Yukon River - one of the last great wild rivers — with the author, his wife and seven children. They followed the Klondike gold rush route of 1898 from Lake Bennett. British Columbia, to Dawson, in the j Yukon •Territory. Seventy-four years earlier, on a perfect June morning 7.000y hand-made boats, one of them carrying the author's father, had set off under sail, paddle, and sweep for the Klondike gold fields. This is how the Bertons retraced, — relived —

that ancestral adventure, recovering the history and legend of every cover and bend in the river, every I mountain pass and ghost i town they drifted by. The day Colin Fletcher first saw the Grand Canyon. he knew he had to walk through it from one end to the other. The Man ! Who Walked Through Time is Colin "s account of that journey. Up until Fletchers attempt, the Grand Canyon had been run by boat, but no one had ever attempted the journey by toot, and the experts said it could not be done STILL. FLETCHER, an experienced hiker who had walked tierce mountain country and inhospitable desert, was determined to make the trip A year later he started the two-month journey he describes in this book The Man Who Walked Through Time is more than an adventure story, for as Colin Fletcher scrambled alone from side ^canyon to side^ahyoo^alqhg the Colorado. the physical struggt* eased and the magnitude of his environment enveloped him He became immersed in the beauty and the vastness of the Canyon, in its space and solitude and silence — and in time It is a grand adventure and a spiritual odyssey A Walk Across America and The Walk West by Peter Jenkins received a great deal of national at tention as parts of the book were featured in National Geographic Magazine. If you managed to miss this particular book, there is still time to read it. I recommended it highly to a regular patron and when he returned the book he left this note: "This is the kind of book I would never have chosen for myself The only reason I took* it out was to see how poor your taste was. Even 61 -year-old men can learn things - I couldn't put it down — read it straight through, and I understand there is a sequel What is the title? I envy Jenkins his forever friends. Cooper Half-Malamute and Barnard Jo. Thanks again". This marvelous pair need not be read in order.

Plea Made For Blood Donations COURT HOUSE - Tina Remy of Sea Isle City required many blood transfusions during several hip operations and hip replacement surgery. That blood was there for her because people Tina didn't even know cared enough to give Today, Tina is the Red Cross Blood Chairperson in Cape May County — and the chairperson of the Sea Isle City Community blood drive Hundreds of people like Tina *red blood everyday, and evejfcy pint makes a difference to patients facing surgery and victims of ac ~cidents or serious disease The Red Cross bloodmobile will be at St Joseph's Church. 44th and Central Avenues in Sea Isle City. 9 a.m. -7 p.m. Friday. Aug. 10. Blood donors save lives, says Tina Remy. who speaks from experience Takes Course ,4s Mechanic OCEAN CITY - Pvt Glenn J Godleski. son of local residents Beverly and Stanley Godleski. has completed a wheeled-vehicle mechanic course at the U S Army Training Center. Fort Jackson. S.C During the course, students were trained to perform maintenance and assist in the repair of automotive vehicles and associate equipment Borchardt Ends Basic ERMA PARK - Airman John J Borchardt. son of Vicky C. Hopkins of 905 Shirley Ave., has been assigned to Sheppard Air Force Base. Texas, after completing Air Force basic training. The airman will, not receive specialized Instruction in the aircraft maintenance field.

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