Somerset County, New Jersey
Somerset
County, New Jersey
SHADE
TREE COMMISSION MINUTES The meeting convened at 7:30 pm. Present: A. Galdi, M. Evans, M. Orsini, J. Baumley, R. Fleischman, J. Gierlich, S. Geoghegan. Absent: B. Marshall, B. Jaquette Jeff Baumley gave an overview of the Bartlett tree seminar, which he attended on March 5th. This course was worth 4 CEUs credited toward our annual requirement of 8. Among the presentations were: Neil Hendrickson, tree pruning for structure; Jason Grabowski, Rutgers, transplanting; Steve Schuckman, Montclair, new tree varieties; Pat Colina, Rutgers, public gardens; beech tree protection at Drew University construction site; Neil Hendrickson, evaluating tree risk. All presentations are accessible to non-professionals and would be suitable for any Commission member. Among the new technical advancements presented were the resistograph, that detects wood softness as a measure of rot and decay in a tree and the Airspade, a machine that blows compressed air to remove excessive backfill over trees, expose roots for examination, etc. Among the topics presented that are of most interest to us were transplanting, pruning, fertilizing and mulching. For transplanting, the hole should be 2 times the size of the root ball, and to the depth of the ball. Less soil amendments such as humus and peat or organic matter are advocated to avoid creating an artificial environment in the root zone. If roots are presented with an optimal environment, they may not venture beyond it, leading to girdling and other problems. With trees in baskets, baskets should be cut by half and folded down, away from the tree. An ongoing debate in the field is whether baskets should be removed entirely. Backfilling of soil should be tight and mulch should not touch bark. Mats of old mulch that has decayed should be broken up, since they can actually shed water. New thinking is that mulch should begin in a ring 2 feet away from the tree, covering only the feeder and water-gathering roots. Pruning should encourage development of a central leader. Fertilizing after planting has been shown in research to make little or no difference, but customers seem to like it and think it necessary. For trees that are lined out in the field, lower branches were often removed to encourage the energy to be directed upward. However, it appears that these branches should now be left and taken off only after the tree is established, since they gather light and nutrients for the tree. Jeff presented a CAD drawing of a tree planting detail. M. Orsini said he would try to download this and post it on our website or at least provide a link to the site, so it could be viewed by the public. Jeff next presented various types of oak leaves from oaks commonly found in Franklin, as well as acorns from the trees. This stemmed from the case of a homeowner whose tree was cut by a neighbor and we were asked to identify it and estimate its value. Leaves can easily be compared to photos in Dirr's "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" for easy identification. M. Orsini will bring this book to each meeting so that we may learn more about tree identification, and the types of trees we would like to plant and encourage planting. M. Orsini reviewed finalized plans for the April 5th tree planting at the South Middlebush Tree farm nursery. Trees have been received and are in good shape. Lunch is being provided by Granny's deli. Hopefully we'll have some labor, since we have a lot of trees to plant but we'll do the best we can. Arbor Day plans were also reviewed. Al will provide mulch and water. Lunch is being worked on. Trees have been received and Jeff has them mulched in. Jeff suggested we might have to plant earlier. An alternate date of April 12th was suggested and left as tentative, since that is not the best date for most people. Mark Evans is going to try to dig the holes as soon as possible but DPW has a full slate, so he cannot guarantee. M. Orsini advised everyone to keep abreast of his or her e-mail. Sheila Geoghegan continues to work on fund-raising efforts. M. Orsini noted that he met an individual opening a business in Franklin and was promised a donation for trees. Since it appears that the Chamber of Commerce is not currently in a position to help us, it was suggested that Sheila work on contacting local businesses directly, which often works better. Sheila asked for a list or ideas for sponsored projects to present. It was determined by the Commission that we should ask Mark Evans to review the Township's parks, locations and conditions with us to generate ideas. It was also suggested that we tour the Township to visit the parks and develop ideas, possibly as an additional meeting or substitute for a meeting or on our own. We will discuss this further at next month's meeting. M. Orsini advised Mark to remind Andy Twiford to check the health of the trees on JFK and elsewhere that were purchased last year from Central Jersey Nurseries as part of the CSIP grant. They have a one-year warranty and we should insure that they replace any that have died. Also, there are dead evergreens in Dunham Lebed by the multipurpose field parking lot. Mark was asked to check if there is a warranty on these. There have been complaints made to Council about this. DPW should remove, or they can be removed as part of Arbor Day work. The meeting was opened to the public. No one was in the audience and the public portion was closed. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm. Respectfully submitted, Michael Orsini,
Chair |