Corporate Stewardship Council

One of Pine Island Cranberry’s core values has always been protecting the environment: caring for the place where we live, work, and grow. To that end, we have been working since 2001 with forester Bob Williams of Land Dimensions Engineering to create and implement a forest stewardship plan. Creating a specific plan helps us protect and improve forest resources by doing practices such as prescribed burning, thinning, and replanting with improved trees. We are improving the forest habitat while at the same time conducting all the necessary work to have a thriving, profitable cranberry operation.

This commitment to stewardship and careful attention to detail was a big part of the decision by New Jersey Audubon to ask us to become the first agricultural production company to join their Corporate Stewardship Council, a unique group of eighteen New Jersey companies united behind a common goal of environmental sustainability and responsibility in NJ. “Not only does Pine Island Cranberry bring an agricultural perspective to the Council, but its membership also brings with it the largest stewardship project to date in the Council. This project was also the first forest stewardship project to be part of the Council membership with a NJ Approved Forest Stewardship Plan,” says John Parke, Stewardship Project Director for New Jersey Audubon. “The work Pine Island Cranberry Company is doing through forest stewardship is exemplary. We commend Pine Island for being a model business that understands that the management of natural resources makes both economic and ecological sense. Thus, they are providing quality forest and farm products which help support the NJ economy, while protecting the future of New Jersey’s critical habitat and farmland. Meaningful and sustainable conservation is difficult to achieve without the knowledge and experience of people like Bill Haines and Bob Williams.”

The Council meets as a group annually with the NJ Audubon and representatives of the NJ DEP and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This year’s meeting was held last Friday in Trenton. Bill was unable to attend, so he sent his daughter Becca Fenstermaker as his representative. Most of the meeting consisted of summaries and updates of projects from the past year and an introduction to new projects. “John was, as always, full of energy and enthusiasm,” says Becca. “The number of stewardship projects and members of the council have increased quite a bit in the few years since it was formed, and John was especially excited to introduce Pine Island to the council. And chatting with some of the other members was interesting because they share our commitment to resource conservation although their projects vary greatly in size and scope.”

Becca adds, “Eagle Ridge Golf Club’s president, Jerry Kokes, is truly passionate about wildlife, particularly birds, and has encouraged native plant growth and installed nesting boxes throughout his property. He showed me a number of beautiful photos on his phone and also impressed me with his bird calling. Keith Campbell, of Mannington Mills, spoke of his family’s commitment to not only improving wildlife habitat but also to improving the local economy by bringing jobs back to the area that had previously been outsourced. His company’s long-term (four-generation, with the fifth working on his MBA) outlook is remarkably similar to Pine Island’s. He sees that being a responsible business owner requires companies to work in partnership with other businesses and agencies to best serve the community and the environment that we depend on for our success.”

Ultimately, NJ Audubon’s goal is for this project to solve a long-standing land use conundrum regarding how to obtain and manage critical wildlife habitat patches suitable for meeting their needs as dictated by their seasonal behavior and daily routine without sacrificing the economics toed to agriculture and forest management in New Jersey. And partnering with a prominent conservation organization like the NJ Audubon is a natural extension of Pine Island’s core values of continuous improvement and protecting the environment.