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Nature– Alive and (Almost) Well in Highland Park.
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Highland Park is an urban community but preserves natural sites nearly ringing this town of gardens and trees:
Named a Tree City USA, Highland Park maintains tree-lined streets with 19th-century homes and a “Craftsman” architecture district (eligible, National Register of Historic Places). Native- plant areas are being made at schools, southside bikeway, and Native Plant Reserve (River Road). |
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| See Yard Illustration with tips! |
Yet our chief natural area may be— your yard. Here are tips from the Highland Park Environmental Commission to help you manage your home or business for environmental health. How you plant, mow, or make building additions (deck, driveway, landscaping, etc.) affects Raritan Watershed runoff, bird visitors...
Let the Rain Soak In. New decks, driveways, or parking areas cover land surface. If that cover is “impervious” (asphalt, concrete), it keeps rain from soaking in. Storm runoff increases, overloading storm drains and washing fertilizers and pesticides direct to the river. Here are ways to keep impervious cover to a low percentage of your lot. Provide soil and landscaping where you can— even a narrow strip between a walk and building- wall gives water a route down into the soil, where it replenishes groundwater or waters your landscaping for you. Adding a deck? Leave gaps between boards to let water drain to the soil beneath. Adding a patio, walk, driveway, or parking spot? Where you do need paving, consider permeable surfaces (crushed stone, pavers, brick, block, or the new permeable asphalt), at least for the less- trafficked corners. When recontouring the land, design slopes to lead stormwater into absorbent soil and landscaping. (But be sure quantities are not too great to absorb and no curbs are in the way.)
Control Your Lighting. Light that spills off a property ("light trespass") was recognized as a nuisance by a 1996 state commission report, and laws may be on the way. In the meantime, use common sense to avoid wasted energy, neighbors' complaints, and disrupted plant cycles. (Many growing plants react to night lighting by delaying dormancy until too late to avoid fall frost-kill.) You may not need outdoor lights at all (for which astronomers and night- active creatures may thank you). If you do, choose shielded lighting fixtures that prevent light- spill to the sky or off the property to bother neighbors and glare in drivers' eyes.
Choose the Right Plants— and Enough of Them. Many common landscaping plants fail in cities (too much heat reflected from nearby concrete, or plants selected from wrong climate zones). Pick species that match your sun, shade, and soil (soil tests are available— see box). The best need little watering, fertilizer, or pesticides. Fruit- bearing plants draw songbirds. Shrubs hide trash bins and hush noise. Native species are often the easiest to keep up, and planting them restocks vanishing species.
In mowing lawns remember: higher cuts (3” lawns, 5” by streams) suppress weeds and build drought resistance. Clippings are best left as “green fertilizer,” and leaves cannot be thrown in the street (illegal— it clogs storm drains). Electric (or hand) mowers/ blowers cut noise pollution, as do “low- noise” gas models (below 70 dB).
In choosing trees to plant, avoid weak- wooded trees (silver maple, willows) near structures and shallow- rooted trees (Norway maples) where they might heave sidewalks. Near street corners, be sure not to block a driver's view. Under wires, plant only short trees and shrubs, such as hedge maple, paperbark maple, serviceberry, shadblow, hawthorn, or flowering cherry. Where there are no wires, some tall native shade trees good for Highland Park are red maple, sugar maple, ash, beech, black gum, linden, thornless honey locust, tulip tree, red oak, and willow oak. Highland Park allows you to plant a tree yourself in the Borough- owned strip by the street, but you must get Borough permission first since many sites have underground utilities or are unsuited to some species. Highland Park manages street trees by computerized inventory and has a volunteer Shade Tree Advisory Committee (Contact Ruth Bowers, 247- 7546, or Arnold Galpern, 828- 9125).
Plan for Energy Conservation. Leaf-shedding deciduous trees on the southwest give cooling summer shade but in winter let in the warming sun. Evergreens on the north make green winter windbreaks. Carefully positioned trees used in these ways can save up to 25% of a household's heating and cooling energy, or $100–$ 250 annually (US Department of Energy). In designing an addition or home- renovation, think of windows as energy machines. North- facing windows lose heat (unless insulated); south-facing windows catch valuable heat and light in winter but may need shade in summer—using trees, vines, awnings, or overhangs. Overhangs in Highland Park, at latitude 40.5 °, can be sized to let in the low winter sun at only 25– 50 ° above the horizon (noon) but block the higher summer sun (50– 75 °).
Existing trees are preserved.
Native plants conserve water, attract birds.
Shrubs retain rainfall better than lawn
Rainfall penetrates soil through added patio (brick) or deck (gapped boards).
Addition with small "footprint" covers less land; new plantings offset losses.
Shielded porch light prevents glare.
Stepping- stone walk lets rainfall soak in.
Information. For tips on home landscaping, composting, and care of the environment, ask the reference librarian at the public library for the pamphlets we have gathered in the folders H. P. Environmental Commission and Shade Tree Advisory Committee. To request a street tree or report one needing care, call the Borough at (732) 572- 3400. Get advice/ soil tests from Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Middlesex County, 390 George St., 8th floor, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, phone (732) 745- 3445; http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/soiltestinglab/.
