Assunpink WMA-State paved roads to Rising Sun and Stone Tavern boat launches…Why??

[chenrossi]

9 hours ago, Raygubernat said:

With all due respect...you ARE missing the point that a Wildlife management area should NOT have a paved road running through it...simply because it IS a WILDLIFE management area.   I have no issue with boat ramps and associated approach aprons being installed in concrete, because THAT makes sense.   I'm not so sure asphalt is a proper choice, but I'll leave that to the environmentalists.  And my comments are not specific to Assunpink.  I believe the same restrictions should apply everywhere there is a WMA.

As far as maintenance of WMA roadways, they seem to do just fine at Collier's Mills and Greenwood Forest.  There is absolutely NO reason why the state cannot maintain a gravel road, if they had the will to do so.  But then the state of NJ is not really into maintenance of any kind(other than prescribed burns) as it relates to upland bird hunting.  

Obviously, my views are biased toward upland game hunting, with dogs...but the increased danger is not a PERCEPTION.  It is a FACT that a vehicle can travel at 40-60 mph through the very middle of the Assunpink tract on the winding paved road, when a speed of 3o mph was a much more realistic top speed when the roadway was gravel.   If someone does not see that this can and does pose a much greater danger to dogs, deer and people... not much else to say.   I believe that the outdoor experience is NOT enhanced by a line of  vehicles zipping by at 50 mph...but that is just me I guess.  

Oh and yeah, to hunt the uplands, you should expect to get out of your car and walk a lick.  There IS a reason why itis called hunting and not just shooting and ...NO I for one have not lost my mind, collectively or otherwise, thank you very much.

 

Have a great day.

I don't disagree with you that Assunpink does probably get a more frequent pool of "sight-seers" just driving around doing God know's what and to your point; I think even there 30 on those gravel roads is a little excessive. I think* even out there I've read just generally speaking it is actually more cost effective to maintain dirt/gravel roads versus asphalt...don't quote me on that, but I think in my time I have seen evidence about that.. as I mentioned; it is one of the most frequented hunting WMAs in the state for upland hunting. But, it would be somewhat unreasonable to have some expectation that in the most densely populated state, upland hunting opportunities where you aren't going to see another soul or car (or maybe a line of them) are very few and far between, regardless of the access and access points to those places.

Like think of it this way, if two pieces of WMA are purchased that are fragmented. (which there is a LOT of in NJ due to fragmented landscape of NJ inherently).. One piece is on one side of the road, the other on the other side...there is a preexisting paved road running between the two pieces...say a common road one drives every day...we don't consider this as a hazard or even consider it as nothing more than a means of getting there, right? In the grand scheme, how does that differ from this? 

There's places I wish we saw more access points in the forms of parking lots at some WMAs that dictated where the "end of the line" is so to speak...instead of dirt roads that people are allowed to drive all over God's creation or ride around fields in circles like sharks.. or make it more enforceable that it is for hunting/angling - wildlife-related recreation and if you aren't doing those things go elsewhere.. I agree it is annoying to just see people out joy riding who don't know what could be going on around a turn in a WMA; I'm thinking in particular during turkey season. It is frustrating walking a mile in from an area only to have a truck drive right through on an access road. There's nothing illegal about what they're doing, but more of an ethical and just etiquette issue. Hop out 100 yards from where you're sitting, slam the door, and start wailing away on a turkey call. How does one combat that, you know? I'm not sure what the answer is other than finding some balance of too little and too much access, which in some regard is counterintuitive to benefiting sportsmen and women.

Just my two cents. My post wasn't necessarily directed at you but just having an overarching open discussion on it since it is a forum, so I apologize if taken as though it was directed at you specifically. 

[Raygubernat]

12 hours ago, chenrossi said:

I don't disagree with you that Assunpink does probably get a more frequent pool of "sight-seers" just driving around doing God know's what and to your point; I think even there 30 on those gravel roads is a little excessive. I think* even out there I've read just generally speaking it is actually more cost effective to maintain dirt/gravel roads versus asphalt...don't quote me on that, but I think in my time I have seen evidence about that.. as I mentioned; it is one of the most frequented hunting WMAs in the state for upland hunting. But, it would be somewhat unreasonable to have some expectation that in the most densely populated state, upland hunting opportunities where you aren't going to see another soul or car (or maybe a line of them) are very few and far between, regardless of the access and access points to those places.

Like think of it this way, if two pieces of WMA are purchased that are fragmented. (which there is a LOT of in NJ due to fragmented landscape of NJ inherently).. One piece is on one side of the road, the other on the other side...there is a preexisting paved road running between the two pieces...say a common road one drives every day...we don't consider this as a hazard or even consider it as nothing more than a means of getting there, right? In the grand scheme, how does that differ from this? 

There's places I wish we saw more access points in the forms of parking lots at some WMAs that dictated where the "end of the line" is so to speak...instead of dirt roads that people are allowed to drive all over God's creation or ride around fields in circles like sharks.. or make it more enforceable that it is for hunting/angling - wildlife-related recreation and if you aren't doing those things go elsewhere.. I agree it is annoying to just see people out joy riding who don't know what could be going on around a turn in a WMA; I'm thinking in particular during turkey season. It is frustrating walking a mile in from an area only to have a truck drive right through on an access road. There's nothing illegal about what they're doing, but more of an ethical and just etiquette issue. Hop out 100 yards from where you're sitting, slam the door, and start wailing away on a turkey call. How does one combat that, you know? I'm not sure what the answer is other than finding some balance of too little and too much access, which in some regard is counterintuitive to benefiting sportsmen and women.

Just my two cents. My post wasn't necessarily directed at you but just having an overarching open discussion on it since it is a forum, so I apologize if taken as though it was directed at you specifically. 

I tend to agree that Assunpink  is perhaps the most heavily frequented WMA in the system and that numerous WMA in NJ have paved roads through them.  I hunted Clinton, a lot, when I lived in NJ and there is a road smack dab though it, along the northern side of the reservoir, but that road was there before they ever put in the reservoir.   I also agree that established, designated parking areas should be the only places where parking is permitted in WMA's during hunting seasons.  

Just so you know I'm not singling out New Jersey, the geniuses down here in Delaware did EXACTLY the same thing at the C & R center in Felton DE, which is a relatively small(400+- acre)  portion of a larger,fragmented WMA.   There was a gravel road that bisected that section of the WMA.  The paved portions of the road stopped at the east and west ends of the wildlife area.  Traffic was light...and slow.  Most folks went around on the hard roads that surrounded the tract unless they were hunting or training.  Then, for no reason that I have ever been made aware of, they paved that section and now cars rip through there at high speed...all the time.  Oh and I should mention the C & R Center is one of the THREE  designated dog training areas in the state and the only place where field trials or hunt tests are conducted.  And...we PAY these people to run things for us!  Marvelous.