CALL FOR NEW MEMBERS Responses required by January 14, 2024 OVERVIEW The Haworth Shade Tree Commission (HSTC) is charged with overseeing trees within the Borough of Haworth. This includes evaluating trees for pruning or removal, and identifying locations for and coordinating the planting of new trees.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SHADE TREE COMMISSION
• Conduct initial inspection of trees as communicated by the Borough Clerk’s office. Each HSTC member has a designated zone to which they are assigned to review trees in question (committee members typically work in pairs); they make their recommendation as to keep, prune, or remove trees based on their visual review and discussions with other STC members as required.
• Review site plans from developers regarding the saving (and protection), removal, and/or replacement of trees. STC provides comments on the site plan to the Building Department. STC works at the outset with the developer and Building Department to protect trees, to make sure site plans don’t compromise healthy trees, and to protect against unnecessary removals
• Compile list of residents who wish to have a tree planted in their yard in the Borough Easement
• Review and mark trees designated for Winter Tree Program (WTP)
• Create town programming for Arbor Day
• Work with DPW and be a part of the permit approval process when residents apply to remove town tree (if responsibility given back to homeowners)
• Annual education through (typically online) seminars to maintain Borough’s accreditation
• Participate in monthly HSTC meetings
If you are interested in being considered for membership on the HSTC, please send a letter of interest no later than
January 14, 2024 to Steve Jureller (HSTC Chair) at ssjureller@gmail.com, and Dina Siciliano (Borough Council Liaison) at Siciliano@HaworthNJ.org. The letter should indicate why you are interested and provide some background on any volunteer experience, how long you’ve been a Haworth resident, and any other information that you feel appropriate. We thank you for your consideration
Meetings 1st Tuesday of the Month - 7:00 PM Municipal Building
To report a town tree, please provide as much detail about the condition and location of the tree in the form by clicking Report a town tree
UPDATES: A few of the HSTC events in the past six months include: Arbor Day ceremonies, Tree City, applying for tree grants, inventorying Borough trees, the second five-year Community Forestry Management Plan. We even have our own certified tree course. As always, keeping Haworth beautiful and green is a Borough-wide effort. Our gratitude goes to so many devoted persons and groups, including you, our residents, for watering all of those newly planted Borough trees at the edge of our roads and for your continued support, commitment and generosity, and to our Shade Tree Consultants for their indispensable wisdom and guidance, and to our Eagle Scouts, who helped take the extensive inventory, and to our Department of Public Works, with whom we work closely and whose steadfast loyalty we rely upon and appreciate. All of this is why we constantly say: All of the words and deeds of the Haworth Shade Tree Commission are variations of one theme: Keep the canopy over Haworth green
REMINDERS: If you would like a new tree to be planted on the easement along your property, please call Borough Hall @201-384-4785 All Borough trees are planted in the right-of-way along both sides of the street, usually within ten feet of the pavement, depending upon the tax map data. Location is contingent upon underground utilities, overhead wires, and distance and age of adjoining trees. You can assist in our efforts to maintain one of Haworth's treasures, its magnificent TREES by participating in the PLANT-A-TREE program:
1. BOROUGH EASEMENT PLAN: Plant a tree or trees on the easement between the street and your home. You buy the tree and the HSTC will plant it.
2. MEMORIAL TREE FUND: Plant a Memorial Tree at a special site, in memory of a loved one.
3. DONATION: Make a contribution to the HSTC towards the planting of trees on Borough property.
4. REPLACE-A-TREE FUND: Choose a Borough tree that you like that is unhealthy or dying, and plant another tree nearby to grow and replace it when it goes. Purchasing and planting will cost approximately $250 to $500, depending upon species and size, and is generally limited to shade trees.
If you are interested in participating in the program, please contact The Borough Hall. Checks should be made payable to the "Borough of Haworth," marked for the HSTC.
Environmentally, trees produce oxygen, serve as windbreaks, help prevent soil erosion, and keep your house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Economically, trees increase the value of your home. Socially, trees help maintain your unique community “your shared oasis of green”, your Haworth. It takes eleven trees to provide oxygen for one person. If a tree is planted on your easement, please water it for at least the first year, especially during the summer months. Please do not tie anything, such as a rope or ribbon, or attach anything else, such as a placard, to a Borough tree, no matter how innocent or celebratory the act may seem. A tree itself is a peerless and innocent celebration, independent of any other kind of embellishment. A tree itself is entertainment.