Local News - State limits gypsy moth spray to Mullica site, but township doesn't want it

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Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher attributed the decreased need for gypsy moth spraying to a variety of factors, including a combination of treatments in 2009, the impact of predatory parasites and an increase in a natural fungus that kills the caterpillars.

"However, the gypsy moth has not been eradicated from the state," Fisher said in a release. "We found some isolated scattered pockets as a result of our surveys, therefore, continued monitoring is necessary to suppress the tree-killing insect in the future."

The Department of Agriculture estimated that the moths have caused varying degrees of defoliation of forested land — between 1,910 and 800,000 acres — every year since 1970, and that two to three years of significant defoliation can kill an otherwise healthy tree.Last year, the Gypsy Moth Aerial Spray program covered 35,816 acres of wooded areas and park land throughout 15 counties and 55 municipalities statewide.

The state counts eggs in areas that appear problematic based on aerial surveys and requests from municipalities, according to Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Lynne Richmond. To qualify for the voluntary spray program, a forest must have an average of more than 500 gypsy egg masses per acre and be at least 50 acres in size.

The only area that met those standards this year is a 99-acre tract in the Nesco section of Mullica Township, which Mullica Township Mayor Michael St. Amour is the site of a former tire dump. The Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders recently announced plans to spend $267,000 in grant funding through the Department of Environmental Protection to remove debris from the property.

"My opinion is that we wouldn't be in favor of taking part in the program," St. Amour said. "That acreage is very small and due to the cyclical nature of gypsy moths and also the damp weather that really curtailed what the threat is."

St. Amour said the financial impact on taxpayers would not have been great, but he said he did not feel gypsy moths posed enough of a threat for any chemicals to be spray in the rural community.

"I'm generally not in favor of spreading these toxins as it is," he said. "But I don't believe there is a consensus to move forward with it at all, at this point."

Upper Township, was hit hard by gypsy moths three years ago after opting out of the spraying program, like Mullica Township is doing this year. As a result, the Cape May County municipality has sprayed more than the state recommended for it in each of the last two years.

Last year, Upper Township spent $42,000 to treat 1,065 acres and in 2008 it spent $300,000 on a double-spraying that covered 4,108 acres.

"It was a really nasty situation, where caterpillars were basically running rampant all over people's properties," Upper Township Mayor Richard Palombo said. "It can become a blight issue that can aesthetically affect people's lives."

And Palombo said he is hesitant to remove any money the township had allotted for gypsy moth spraying from the budget, until the Township has a better opportunity to evaluate the state's information.

"I'd like to consider keeping at least some money in the budget for it in the event there is an emergency," he said. "We don't want to experience what we had here three years ago."

But other municipalities seem content with the Department of Agriculture's assertion that they do not pay for gypsy moth treatments.

Galloway Township will not pay to spray for gypsy moths this year, according to Clerk Lisa Tilton.

Some people living outside last year's 246-acre treatment area took matters into their own hands.

"If any residents complain when the season starts, they can spray on their own as they did last year," she said.

Gypsy moths damaged 246 forested acres in Galloway last year, less than 6 percent of the 4,469-acre area they ravaged in 2007.

The 2007 expanse accounted for more than a quarter of the area defoliated throughout Atlantic County that year. Less than 5 percent of damaged acres countywide were in Galloway, according to the annual state gypsy moth aerial defoliation surveys.

Absecon and Barnegat Township also did not qualify for the state program and will not arrange for spraying locally, leaving it to residents to fend for themselves, according to administrators Terry Dolan and David Breeden.

Municipalities in the state suppression program spent more than $6.5 million on suppression last year and got back 23 percent of what they spent from the U.S. Forest Service, according to the state Department of Agriculture Web site.

The Department of Agriculture plans to conduct an aerial survey of the state in July to determine the extent of tree damage from gypsy moth caterpillars this year and where it will survey next fall.

Contact Robert Spahr:  609-272-7283  RSpahr@pressofac.com

Contact Emily Previti:  609-272-7221  EPreviti@pressofac.com