February 25, 2026 Planning Board Special Meeting - WEHI Transcript

03/20/2026 06:14:03 AM Page 53 to 56 of 154 14 of 68 sheets 53 area, 143 areas. Percent reduction right now, none.1 Because it's not touched. It's completely -- it's2 untouched. Existing forest core, 58 acres. Post3 development forest core, 114. Acres lost in the core --4 I'm sorry. Post development of forest area, 114. Acres5 lost in the forest, 28. That's the area of disturbance,6 28 acres. Post development forest core is now down to7 9. What is lost, 48. And we'll see in the next image8 as we go through what happens.9 Could you pull back. I'm sorry for those10 watching, I do tend to move around. I'm making everyone11 dizzy online. I'm sorry about that. Oh, good. Okay.12 Now, we'll move to the next chart. There we13 see the 300 feet of edge referenced. Now, when you look14 at the core forest in the green crosshatching, and you15 look at the area of disturbance, what's left are two16 corridors on either side, I'll point them out. Here is17 the first new edge area. When you cut into the forest18 with the area of disturbance, what you're doing is19 you're creating new edge. The existing edge is the20 yellow line, that's the edge of the forest. And so 30021 feet in gives us our core. This is more degraded on the22 exterior. It's still got ecological functions, but not23 as many as a core forest.24 Now, when we put the area of disturbance in,25 54 we have to measure a new edge. That's what Dr. DeVito1 testified to. That new edge will come from the edge of2 the area of disturbance out 300 feet. That means the3 core forest all through here's lost. The red as well as4 the green crosshatched that's now the new edge. And5 what we get is that. The new core forest, after6 development, will be those magenta areas. The total of7 9 acres. That is the new core forest from that. That's8 our existing core. A rare jewel in this part of the9 world, and that's what will be left, what's in purple.10 Magenta. The rest will be developed.11 Now, after the project is built the edge12 won't disappear instantly obviously. It will degrade13 over time. The core forest remains intact, as long as14 we don't build new edge. Once we build new edge, the15 edge grows, it intrudes into the center of the forest16 and the edge will degrade. The edge is not interior17 forest, it is not core forest. And we heard from Dr.18 Luke Butler, that for example just with bird species19 alone you get a

nter of the forest16 and the edge will degrade. The edge is not interior17 forest, it is not core forest. And we heard from Dr.18 Luke Butler, that for example just with bird species19 alone you get a totally different type of species20 present. You get invasives entering the edge pushing21 out the normal inhabitants of the interior. So we'll go22 further.23 So bear that image in mind. After this is24 built the only interior core forest left is within those25 55 magenta small structures of about 9 acres.1 That's the drainage areas that exist, I2 referred to them earlier. There's the western and the3 eastern drainage area. And the western was in dark4 green and the eastern was in light green.5 And there you see superimposed the area of6 disturbance on top of the two drainage sectors, and7 drainage sectors are very simple concept. You're8 familiar with the term Continental Divide. Well, the9 Continental Divide is the place where drainage changes,10 right. Some rivers go to the Pacific and some go to the11 Mississippi. You have a peak on a continent or on the12 part of the land that forms our drainage area. It's13 exactly the same concept as the Rocky Mountains, and so14 drainage will go in one direction to the west, one15 direction to the east or southeast, depending on the16 contour.17 Now, this is Dr. Butler's slideshow, I have18 most of his slideshow here, I think. And he's an19 ornithologist working at The College of, I believe, The20 College of New Jersey, and he testified as to the21 impacts of this project on local fauna, primary birds.22 And I don't need to go over everything he said, but this23 is where he did his observations, and you see a good24 summertime image of the forest, it's more dark green,25 56 because now our non -- our deciduous trees are now in1 full leaf. He had four observation points on several2 different days. In yellow, on the bottom, are the three3 squares we observed, and on the top, that long4 rectangle, is where he observed. And did so, from my5 reading about it, about 20 minutes at a time. And/or6 half hour at a time depending on the day. For example,7 on April 25 he went from 5:55 in the morning to 6:15.8 And April 29 from 12:30 in the afternoon to l:30. On --9 to 1306. So, yeah 1:30. On Kuzak Drive on the 29th he10 went from, I think I'm saying this correctly, 11:0011 o'clock to 11:45 in the morning. And on Warner he

m 12:30 in the afternoon to l:30. On --9 to 1306. So, yeah 1:30. On Kuzak Drive on the 29th he10 went from, I think I'm saying this correctly, 11:0011 o'clock to 11:45 in the morning. And on Warner he went12 on the same day just afterwards at the Center Square13 location and Bayowski Road, he did something similar.14 So these were his observation points he testified to.15 Now, he observed the following subset of16 bird life. I can't really read all the names, unless we17 go in on it. I don't think we need each name, what's18 important is the next slide. Sorry. This is just a19 chart of his observation minutes and the species20 observed. Percent of the total and obviously he saw21 more species as he spent more time observing, which is22 natural. This describes 20 species were observed, 1423 families were observed, meaning families of species and24 one migratory species.25