New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | New Jersey |
| Parent agency | New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection |
| Child agencies |
New Jersey Forest Service New Jersey Forest Fire Service New Jersey Office of Natural Lands Management New Jersey State Park Police New Jersey State Park Service |
| Website | http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/ |
In the state of New Jersey, the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry is an administrative divisions of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In its most visible role, the Division is directly responsible for the management and operation of New Jersey's public park system which includes 42 state parks, 11 state forests, 3 recreation areas, and more than 50 historic sites and districts. However, its duties also include protecting state and private lands from wildfire, managing forests, educating the public about environmental stewardship and natural resources, as well as growing trees to maintain and restore forests in rural and urban areas, and to preserve the diversity of the trees within the forests.[1]
The cultural and natural heritage of New Jersey is reflected in the diversity of its public parks, forests, and historic sites. The division is the steward of the historic homes, landscapes and battlefields where George Washington and the Continental Army spent almost half of the American Revolutionary War.
Agencies
New Jersey Forest Fire Service
Founded in 1906 with a focus on wildland fire suppression and fire protection, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service is the largest firefighting department within the state of New Jersey in the United States with 85 full-time professional civil service positions, and approximately 2,000 trained part-time on-call wildland firefighters throughout the state. Its mission is to protect "life and property, as well as the state's natural resources, from wildfire."[2] The New Jersey Forest Fire Service covers a primary response area of 3.72 million acres comprising 77% of the state's land area and administered by three regional divisions. This primary response area includes the state's rural and suburban areas, as well as its public state parks and forests. In 2014, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service responded to 1,063 wildfire events that destroyed 6,692 acres. The service conducted controlled burns or prescribed burns on 15,326 acres statewide.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
- ↑ New Jersey Forest Fire Service, "About Us". Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ↑ State of New Jersey, Department of the Treasury, Office of Management and Budget, State of New Jersey Fiscal Year 2016 Detailed Budget, February 24, 2015, page D-113 to D-115. Note: the budget appropriation of $8,775,000 is for "Forest Resource Management" which includes the Forest Fire Service appropriation and other programmes directed by the Division of Parks and Forestry, and enumerates $2,259,000 for specifically "Fire Fighting Costs".