Tag Archives: tree

1000 seedling tree giveaway in Newark Friday 29 April at Hawthorne Hawks Farm

Free Seedling Tree Distribution Newark
Source: New Jersey Tree Recovery Foundation

Newark, NJ on 27 April 27 2016 — The City of Newark and Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School students will celebrate Arbor Day on Friday, April 29 with a tree giveaway. Students will plant trees at the farm and 1000 tree seedlings will be gifted to Newark residents to beautify the city.

When Friday, April 29
1:30-2:30pm
When Hawthorne Hawks Healthy Harvest Farm in the South Ward
446 Hawthorne Avenue (Between Demarest and Dewey Streets, Entrance on Demarest Street
Newark, NJ

The tree seedling giveaway is part of the New Jersey Tree Recovery Campaign, which has set a goal to distribute over 500,000 tree seedlings to New Jersey residents over the next five years. It is a joint effort between the City of Newark, New Jersey State Forest Service, New Jersey Soil Conservation Districts, Sustainable Jersey, Arbor Day Foundation, Brothers International, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Wyndham Vacation Resorts, FedEx and local partners Greater Newark Conservancy and Newark DIG (Doing Infrastructure Green!).

Arbor Day was begun in Nebraska in 1872 by President (and New Jersey native) Grover Cleveland’s Secretary of Agriculture, J. Sterling Morton. It was part of his effort to encourage forestry and land conservation, and the planting of 1 million trees in that state. Today, unique Arbor Day celebrations are held world and country-wide, each with their own flavor and date but unified by the same theme: planting and preservation of trees and protection of the Earth’s environment.

Free Right Tree – Right Place Seminar in Somerset County

Right tree in right placeThe New Jersey Tree Foundation and Public Service Electric & Gas are offering a free seminar in Somerset County on May 8: Planting the Right Tree in the Right Place, the Right Way in a post-Superstorm Sandy world which addresses

  • Picking the right tree for any location and planting it the right way
  • The importance of utility mark-outs prior to planting
  • Emerald Ash Borer – It’s here!
  • Vegetation management policies to ensure safe and reliable delivery of electric service

Who should attend? Mayors, Freeholders, DPW Supervisors, Environmental & Shade Tree Commissioners, County Officials and any other interested parties. This seminar is worth 2 Continuing Education Units for towns with a 5-year Community Forestry Management Plan.

Date: Friday 08 May 2015
Time: Registration opens 9:00am. Program runs 9:30am – 11:45am
Place: Bridgewater Municipal Building, 100 Commons Way, Bridgewater NJ.

Please RSVP by Friday, May 1 by emailing Lisa Simms at njtf1@juno.com. Please include name and email address for each attendee. Light refreshments will be served.

tree growth guide

The Arbor Day Foundation offers a robust tree placement assessment resource.

Goat-Christmas tree tech & other upcycling strategies

Tree-eating goats are the newest firefighting tech

goats eat Christmas treesReno’s latest firefighting technology is a bit unusual: Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District feeds old Christmas trees to goats. They’ve partnered with Goat Grazer’s Vince Thomas and his flock of 40, giving them yummy pine trees to eat full of Vitamin C and potassium. The trees would otherwise hang about in illegal dumping areas and become a fire hazard.

Poet journalist praises create repurposing

Adam Cole of NPR penned a poem to praise the different ways people put to use some of the 30 million dead Christmas trees Americans burn through annually once they’re not decorating homes any longer. Bradley Beach, New Jersey made it into his verse:

In the East, Mitchell Mann and Dominic Esposito
Are two Jersey boys who live by one credo:
“To save the environment, pretty much, being green.”
So they drummed up a posse of like-minded teens.
They’ll grab all the trees — every one within reach
And they’ll bring them all down to nearby Bradley Beach.
“Once the trees are on the beach they’re laid down against a fence.”
Where they form the foundation of the town’s defense.
“And as the wind blows the trees capture the sand.”
And soon dunes will form — at least that’s the plan.
And in future years, “When a storm comes through
It protects all the houses,” and habitat too.

Mulch a tree!

Mulch Fest NYCAnother thing you can do with dead trees are mulch them. In NYC if you bring a tree to the city’s MulchFest, you will get back a bag of the mulch created from the noble pine!

Next year, buy a sustainably grown or re-plantable tree

If you plan ahead for next year, you can buy a sustainably grown tree or even a living tree with root ball intact, that gets replanted after Christmas.

Buy a sustainably grown Christmas tree or re-plant one

Want to responsibly handle your Christmas tree purchase and disposal this year? A growing number of people do, so there are options if you’re willing to spend a little extra effort, time and maybe money.

Green America reports that you can buy a cut tree from a family farm that plants “about two trees for every one cut” and grows trees on rocky soil where other crops don’t thrive. “This means that instead of barren land, the farm hosts trees that provide oxygen and combat global warming.” But, you also want an organically grown tree to avoid bringing home harmful toxins or supporting the practice of allowing pesticides and herbicides to contaminate soil and groundwater.

How to find a responsible, organic tree vendor in New Jersey

Maybe you want to replant your tree!

For this laudable goal, take a trip to the Philly area and buy a tree that can be replanted – in your backyard; by donating it back to Tiny Terra Ferma or to a local environmental center like the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education or the Upper Roxborough Reservoir … or replant it in a service event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on 20 Jan 2014.

Good luck with your responsible Christmas tree hunt and a very Happy Christmas to you! Let us know what your search turns up.