at long last after a decade of public input the state this week released an official map of roads where vehicles are allowed inside Wharton State Forest the D says the new map was designed to protect Public Safety and environmentally sensitive areas in the forest there's hundreds of miles of open roads within Wharton's 12400 th000 Acres but outdoor enthusias say the finalized map is too restrictive and bans travel in areas that had previously been open Raven Santana has the details so we can't say you can drive over this bridge you're inviting people into disaster we have to be able to tell people where they can go safely Jason Howell Public Lands advocate for Pinelands preservation Alliance says this dilapidated bridge is just one example of a road that will be deemed illegal to drive over according to the new Wharton State Forest visiting vehicle use map that is now in effect we've got a team of staff on forest fire and Parks um out there trying to keep these roads on a condition that people can drive on them and not get stuck the entire process that spans several years and involved public input research and surveys was no easy task but the Department of Environmental Protection is confident the new map will enhance safety improve access to emergency responses and protect the Integrity of sensitive habitats 98% of the State Forest is accessible within a mile of one of those routes and we do have 28.3 miles that is available to The Hunting Community during hunting season when they're out there with a permit um for a hunting activity so in terms of the um feedback you know I would say it's a mixed bag and it still feels a little early to me you know in some regards I don't necessarily expect anyone to be completely happy emergency access is a top priority for the DP in the fire prone state forest the Mulla River fire scorched 15,000 Acres of war in in 2022 after are being started by an illegal campfire and smaller fires are common like a 45 acre fire last month Howell says there hasn't been an updated map of warten Roads since the 1960s when the first map came out since then lots of things have changed uh bridges are no longer here there are uh Cranberry Bogs that have flooded beavers have taken over certain areas so there's a real need to update the map so when you want to say hey I want to go camping in Wharton State Forest I want to go for a bike ride I want go for a hike you know how to get in you know which ways you can take to get in and what you can do when you get there it's really the most common sense thing in the world but there are people that have developed an expectation of use that's never been authorized never been allowed and that's and that's why there's opposition because they want to keep doing things that really was never the state forest was never designed to be used for one of the things that I am um also disappointed about is um the way that the um the DP is portraying their their actions right uh several times we've heard the commissioner and assistant commissioner uh say that well they're not really closing down roads within Wharton these roads were already underwater impassible or inaccessible uh already and uh and so you you weren't able to travel those roads uh to to begin with when in fact that's uh nothing could be farther from the case and like I said this is a prime example of of one of those one of those roads John druding lives about 5 miles from the forest and has lived in the Pinelands his whole life juding is also president of open Trails New Jersey an organization dedicated to maintaining access to Wharton and other state parks in Jersey juding calls the reasoning behind the new map overblown analysis done by open Trails of State Park police records found that last year there were just 110 safety related calls in Wharton State Forest even though the forest had more than 800,000 visitors there were also less than 100 citations given to drivers and none involved roads that the DP has now closed really uh the people who are uh going to break the laws are not going to pay attention to the map anyway the DP and State Park police announced the new map would focus on education rather than enforcement until January but juding says they just announced a number of fines handed out to drivers in the forest literally the next weekend uh they put out a big release about uh a bunch of uh violators that they that they uh ticketed Within the Woods several of them related to the the park code violation related to roads State Park police said those actions were enforcing existing laws about proper vehicle registration and wetlands protection not about enforcing the new map fines for illegal off-road vehicle use and damages are up to $500 for a first offense $11,000 for a second offense and a minimum of a th000 for a third or subsequent offense if someone causes damage they'll be responsible for five times the cost of the damage Vehicles may also be impounded at an additional cost juding says he's skeptical about how the new map will be enforced with only so many State Park police and more than a 100,000 acres to cover forj Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music]