The NJDEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife will be holding its annual trout stocking public meeting at the Pequest Trout Hatchery on Saturday, February 13 at 10:00 a.m. This important meeting provides an excellent opportunity for anglers to ask questions, voice their opinions, and give suggestions regarding New Jersey’s trout stocking program. Changes for 2010 season will be presented and explained.

Avalon public works employees clear dead Japanese black pine trees from the dunes at 74th Street.
Photo credit: Dale Gerhard

The thought of cutting down and removing trees from Avalon’s treasured maritime forest might seem like the last thing environmentalists would want to do. But Brian Reynolds expresses no remorse as workers removed portions of trees along 74th Street. “We have to get them out,” Reynolds said. Reynolds, who chairs Avalon’s Environmental Commission, is talking about only one kind of tree; the Japanese black pine. When planted in the 1960s, the trees were a great way to keep the dunes from eroding.

To view previous Jill's Pick from Around the World stories follow these links:

• World's Longest Migration is 2X Longer Than Thought
• Sharks Killed for Oil Used in Swine Flu Vaccine 
• Australia's koalas facing AIDS-like disease
• "Bizarre" Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters
• Bird "sings" through feathers

"Looming overhead like a dark cloud for the past two and a half years was the failure by Mine Hill’s mayor to acquire a reimbursement of $800,000 from the New Jersey Green Acres. The organization promised it would pay the town, as part of a funding package, to purchase 200 acres of open space known as the Dickerson Mine Tract. As time elapsed and no payment appeared in sight, the disappointment in not acquiring the funds became the fodder for political snipping between the mayor and previous Town Council members, who made it clear that the township would be in debt if it failed to acquire the promised funds."