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Egg Harbor City awarded second $30,000 tree planting grant

EGG HARBOR CITY – SustainableEHC, the city’s green team, has announced that Egg Harbor City is the recipient of a second $30,000 New Jersey Forestry Service Urban and Community Forestry Stewardship grant to plant new trees on city streets. It is the second tree planting grant the city has received from the Forestry Service.

The first grant totaling $30,000 was received in 2015 to plant 109 trees lost during the freak derecho storm of 2012. In that round of funding, trees were planted at Lincoln Park, the Charles L. Spragg Elementary School, Cedar Creek High School and along New York Avenue leading to the high school.

“These grants provide municipalities and counties with funds to assist with the implementation of forestry goals and objectives,” said Michael Martini of the Forestry Service.

“This grant will allow us to replant approximately 100 of the 200 street trees that were removed during road reconstruction projects over the last 10 years,” SustainableEHC Chairwoman Nanette LoBiondo Galloway said. “Affected residents will have the option of having a new tree planted in the right-of-way in front of their homes.”

Galloway said the city will conduct a mail survey of affected homeowners over the winter months to determine where the trees will be planted. Residents on the 500-block of Cincinnati Avenue, 600-block of Chicago Avenue, 200-blocks of San Francisco and London avenues, and the 100-blocks of Boston and London avenues will have the choice of a street tree species on the city’s pre-approved tree list and may select up to two trees based on conditions at the site. Plantings will take place in the fall of 2022.

The project will help the city maintain its existing tree canopy, a goal the green team has supported for years. Many of the city’s existing street trees are nearing the end of their lifespans and will need to be replaced as they are lost due to storms or disease, Galloway said.

Replacing street trees complies with the city’s effort toward sustainability, reducing its carbon footprint and enabling effective stormwater management. It also prevents the heat island effect and reduces energy costs for homeowners.

“The beauty of Egg Harbor City’s tree-lined streets must be preserved,” Mayor Lisa Jiampetti said thanking the NJ Forestry Service for supporting the city’s tree cover goal. “These tree planting projects will enhance the social, economic, visual and environmental well-being of our community.”

Some of the goals of the planting project are to diversify the city’s street tree species, educate the public about the benefits of planting trees, and promoting tree stewardship.

The city was also recently awarded a $5,000 Atlantic City Electric Resiliency Grant to label mature trees in Lincoln Park, located on the White Horse Pike near the NJ Transit rail station. The signage will contain the tree’s common and Latin names and list its properties and natural habitat. Labeling the trees will help residents decide which tree species they would like to plant on their properties.

The green team will also create a color brochure containing information about the various tree species, many of which are native to New Jersey, and hold an Arbor Day tree planting and tour of Lincoln Park on the last Friday in April 2022.