Somerset County, New Jersey
Somerset
County, New Jersey
SHADE
TREE COMMISSION MINUTES The meeting was
called to order at 7:40pm. M. Orsini reviewed briefly what he learned at CORE training in Cape May in October. The Shade Tree Commission operates via an approved Community Forestry Management Plan (CFMP). This, plus having 2 Core-trained members and a total of 8 continuing education units (CEUs) allows the Commission to apply for CSIP grants-the "big money". Currently we have an approved CFMP through 2003. We will need a new one covering the next five years-2004-08, inclusive. We have applied for a 2K Green Communities Challenge Grant which will allow us to hire a certified tree expert and/or arborist to help us write a new plan. Requires 1K Township match. This will be a major recurring objective for 2003. We also applied for a 2003 Community Standards in Practice (CSIP) grant for 6K. This will cover planting approx. 30 trees in DeLar Park. Both grants this year I have been told will be noncompetitive, meaning we should get both. That is why the CSIP grant is not for as much as in past years (15K)-they are trying to spread out the money to more communities. Currently, we have 2 Core-trained people (M. Evans and M. Orsini). Core -training stays with the person, not the municipality, so if one us moves, you must Core-train a second person. For that reason, the ultimate goal should be Core-training the entire Commission. A. Galdi and J. Baumley indicated their interest, especially in the February training. Once a schedule for training is released by State Forestry, we will decide who will attend what. We have acquired 9 CEU's this year (5-M. Evans; 2-M. Orsini, 1-A. Galdi, 1-S. Geoghegan). CEU's stay with the municipality, rather than the person. M. Orsini then led a discussion of next year's objectives. For the rest of 2002, we will have our dinner at Good Time Charlie's at 6:30 pm on 12/12/02. M. Orsini asked everyone to respond with a yes or no and number of people by 12/05/02 so that reservations can be made. On 12/19 at 7:30 at the Elizabeth Ave. school, we will be thanked by the Board of Education for tree planting on 9/11. Everyone is welcome to attend. That will close out the year. For 2003, we will briefly reorganize and adopt our meeting schedule at our first meeting in January. Events upcoming first-Earth Day and Arbor Day. The commission decided that depending on rescheduling of Op-Cop, Op-Cop should take priority over Earth Day due to increased exposure-we will try to get our own booth if possible. For Arbor Day, we will plant the trees we have ordered in Dunham Lebed Park, according to our landscape plan discussed and adopted earlier this year. Also, we must plant at the tree nursery the 300 trees that will be received from our National Tree Trust grant. This will bring the nursey to close to 600 trees, a number that will be maintained through replanting bare-root stock in the spring and transplanting potted trees in the fall, as needed. Any trees that will need to be transplanted from the nursery to the field can be done in October as part of Make a Difference with Trees day. J. Baumley advised that we should do this every year with the transplanted (potted) trees at this time of year, due to their being dormant, needling less water, etc. In the spring we should plant bare-root trees. The Environmental Commission guidelines are finished and will be forwarded to the Environmental Commission. Upon their approval will be given to zoning for distribution, since zoning is the first point of contact in the approval process. J. Baumley argued strongly that in the guidelines, we should prohibit augering as a means of digging holes for trees. Because of shale soil in Franklin, this amounts to putting trees in a clay pot if hole is not scuffed first. Preferred method would be by hand or backhoe. M. Orsini asked whether it would be possible to allow augering if holes were scuffed. J. Baumley doubted that most landscapers would heed this, and if it could be enforced, thus best to prohibit altogether, so that engineering or whoever inspects can better enforce. Will also eliminate problems from residents as the trees will die or be of poor quality in 5-10 years. M. Orsini agreed to write this in before giving the guidelines to zoning. We will also make code enforcement and engineering aware of this issue to educate the people who might actually be able to enforce this. M. Orsini will draft memo. M. Evans commented that Parks does scuff the holes if they auger in trees. A brief discussion followed around residents request for replacement of dead trees. M. Orsini has fielded several requests, and directed people to engineering to determine if tree(s) is/are on Township property. So far had one case of dead tree being on Township right-of-way and that tree will be replaced in Spring. One case also involved trees on border of Township/Rutgers (Hutcheson Forest) property, and in that case deferred to Rutgers, who is letting the area go to natural succession. Other cases, trees were determined to be on resident's property. We do have to take down dead/hazardous trees on Township property, but not necessarily replace them, especially since funding is scarce. J. Baumley suggested that where it is determined the trees are on Township property will start a list of people and replace trees as they become available from the nursery or through grants, etc. on a first-come first-served basis. The Commission agreed and will implement this practice. M. Orsini updated progress on use of developer fees to fund Shade Tree Commission. Meeting with Councilman Grippo, Ryck Suydam, Frank Hasner and Ken Daly was productive in that it was agreed an easily understandable flat fee should be determined, perhaps based on size/cost of development. Ken Daly suggested that this not be haphazard, and in the coming year will convene meeting of Environmental, Shade Tree, Open Space and Planning to make this part of our Master Plan and develop an overall vision, so that we are both fair and consistent. Progress may be slow but we are making progress. The meeting was opened to the public. No public was present and the public portion was closed. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm -Michael J. Orsini, Chair |