Some 105 street trees were added to Highland Park’s urban forest in 2002,
a major and very visible benefit to the borough. We welcome these grant-funded trees to our tree-friendly
borough, where many other shade tree and environmental projects are ongoing.
Awards and Grants:
- Tree Pruning. Our Community Forestry Management Plan lists as
a priority the pruning of trees with a potential for large dead limbs. To fund this special effort,
STAC sought and was awarded a Community Stewardship Incentive Program (CSIP) tree maintenance
grant from the New Jersey Forest Service. This $9,000 grant with a $3,000 match from the
Borough makes $12,000 available for the pruning of mature trees throughout town as identified
from our tree Inventory database. A contractor began work late in the year, continuing into 2003.
- Street Tree Plantings. Implementing the 2001 NJ Tree Planting Grant from the
NJ Forest Service was a major project in 2002one of the largest tree plantings in recent years.
This planting of 105 trees was highly successful, due in part to a new procedure involving monitoring
of the process by a member of the Department of Public Works. As always, STAC members surveyed all
sites and recommended trees likely to thrive and not cause problems. The plantings were widely noticed
and appreciated by residents. They begin to implement the Community Forestry Management Plan’s goal of
annual plantings leading toward a cut in the tree vacancy rate to 10% in 10 years.
- Community Development Block Grant. STAC again won a portion of the
borough’s state CDBG grant for tree plantings. A lower-than-expected bid, however, allowed the separate
Forest Service grant to cover these trees as well, freeing the money for the Borough’s other CDBG purposes.
- Tree City USA. Our status was again renewed for the ninth consecutive year,
meeting standards for municipal tree care.
- Web Site Award. The Highland Park Environmental web site at
www.leoraw.com/hpenv/ won an award
from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions. The web site was developed
jointly by the Environmental Commission and the Shade Tree Advisory Committee, with
site design services donated by Leora Wenger. Log on
for a virtual tour of Highland Park open space and more.
Education and Community Outreach:
- Newsletter. STAC provided information on tree-related activities to
the Borough’s newsletter, including the process for residents to request trees by contacting DPW.
- Community Day/Street Fair. STAC was again a presence at
Highland Park’s annual Community Day and Downtown Street Fair. Activities at our information
table included: 1) handing out educational literature on trees for homeowners; 2) distributing
tree seedlings with planting and care instructions; 3) gathering names of volunteers for
work days at the Native Plant Reserve on River Road; 4) handing out posters for
children; 5) answering residents’ questions about street trees, STAC programs, and environmental issues in the borough.
- Community Groups. STAC continues to maintain ties with other
community groups having allied interests in trees and open space. These groups include
Edison Wetlands Association, Highland Park Environmental Commission, Native Plant Society of
New Jersey, Rahway River Association, Save Open Space, Watershed Ambassadors, and WaterWatch.
Activities:
- Plant Rescues. Twice in 2002 STAC intervened to save
plants at construction sites. The first case was on Cedar Lane, where trees were being cleared
for a Rutgers University bike path. STAC, the Environmental Commission, and borough officials
met with university officials and arranged for fewer cuttings on remaining portions of the path. The
second was a “plant rescue” in the Kilmer Woods/Rutgers Ecological Preserve, where a strip along
Metlars Lane was being cleared for the Route 18 widening. A dozen red cedar seedlings and the
bulbs of many native spring wildflowers, such as spring beauty and trout lily, were dug out and
transplanted to the Native Plant Reserve on River Road.
·
- Fund Raising.STAC members continue to monitor and tend newly
planted street trees, tracking their health, removing stakes and ties, and pruning low branches to
prevent later interference with vehicles or pedestrians.
- Care of Street Trees.Planning was begun for a fund-raiser to
benefit street trees and other plantings throughout Highland Park’s public
spaces. STAC plans a plant sale in conjunction with the 2003 Community Day/Street Fair in April.
Several area nurseries are cooperating to provide plants, many of them the hard-to-find native
species. Birdhouses, built by local seniors and other volunteers, will be on sale, too, with proceeds
benefiting plantings. This fund raiser will be a first for our committee and comes at an
important time, as grant money for tree plantings is becoming harder to obtain.
- Environmental Education Centers 1) Native Plant Reserve. STAC members
continued to tend the award-winning reserve on River Road and in addition served
on Highland Park’s Environmental Education Centers Working Group alongside members of
the Environmental Commission. This group is developing restoration and trail projects
throughout Highland Park’s riverside open spaces (greenway). The reserve will be the first and
most striking restoration project, funded by a county grant. The landscape architecture firm MKW was
hired to design intensive native landscape plantings, educational signage, and a
shelter/pavilion. Designs will be shown to the public as they are developed during spring and summer 2003.
- Environmental Education Centers 2) Trail to Donaldson. Southside
Highland Park, too, will see in 2003 results of 2002 planning by members of STAC and the
Environmental Commission. At the foot of the Southside Bikeway (Fifth and Valentine), a
Recreational Trails Grant allowed us to plan an improved stroller-friendly trail into
Donaldson Park. Native plantings will rehabilitate the narrow trail site between stream and
DPW fence, creating a short and accessible nature trail and easy entry to the park.
