Cranbury students, officials and residents will plant a red maple tree outside of the Cranbury School today (Friday) in honor of National Arbor Day.
By: Jessica Beym
With a bit of love and a few strong hands, a little red maple sapling will sink its roots in Cranbury’s soil.
As part of a National Arbor Day, the red maple, the state tree of New Jersey, will be planted outside of the Cranbury School around 2:20 p.m. today (Friday).
Students from the second grade, residents and township officials, including Mayor Tom Panconi, will gather on the field outside of the new gymnasium to celebrate.
The event is sponsored by the township’s Shade Tree Commission and commission Chairwoman Judy Dossin said it’s important to Cranbury, which, for the past 18 years, has been named a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation.
Ms. Dossin said the Shade Tree Commission, which consists of five volunteer members, works hard to maintain the variety and abundance of trees in town by planting sometimes more than 350 new trees along the streets and in public places in town every year.
The commission is also responsible for educating and encouraging students and residents about the importance of trees, and Arbor Day is just another day to reinforce that, Ms. Dossin said.
Every other year, Arbor Day, which always occurs in New Jersey on the last Friday in April, is celebrated by planting a different tree on the school grounds. When it’s not celebrated at the school, it is celebrated in one of the township’s parks. But each year a different type of tree, such as oak, dogwood or maple, is planted.
"We (plant the tree) at the school with the idea that in 12 to 15 years, the environmental or science classes at the school will have a wide variety of trees to look at and to study," Ms. Dossin said.
Last year, a dogwood tree was planted in Memorial Park across from Brainerd Lake. Ms. Dossin said she, and what seems to be the rest of the community, always enjoy celebrating Arbor Day at the school with the students.
"Everyone has a good time," Ms. Dossin said. "The kids are so earnest and they sing a wonderful song. It’s really quite a lot of fun."
The students also will be presenting projects that they have been working on this week during the celebration. The Shade Tree Commission will be giving out 150 small seedlings to encourage residents to plant them in their yards or neighborhoods.
As a Tree City, Cranbury is expected to celebrate Arbor Day, which is one of the requirements. To be named as a Tree City by the National Arbor Day Foundation, a town must have a tree board or department, a tree care ordinance, a comprehensive forestry program and an Arbor Day observance.
But celebrating the environment and the forest isn’t something that should only be done on just one day, Ms. Dossin said.
The commission also educates the students and the public and provides information about the various trees in the community and the dangers of the diseases that are affecting them.
Ms. Dossin said a disease called bacterial leaf scorch has been slowly killing the trees in Cranbury for the past five years.
"Here in Cranbury you have neighborhoods with not one or two, but 40 or 50 trees that are hit," Ms. Dossin said. "It’s a bacterial infection of the trees that started in the South and has worked its way up the Eastern Seaboard. We’re talking millions and millions of trees."
According to the National Arboretum, the infectious bacteria are carried and transmitted through insects called spittlebugs and leafhoppers. The disease clogs the trees’ water conducting tissues, slowly killing them. Ms. Dossin said that if the disease is caught early, trees can be pruned to keep them healthy.
"We try to plant a lot of trees throughout the township on an annual basis and we need to do it, especially because of this disease," Ms. Dossin said.