Pennington fetes Arbor Day

Tree is planted at Toll Gate

By John Tredrea
   Continuing a tradition begun in 1872 by Pennington resident J. Sterling Morton, officials, residents and school children gathered for a ceremonial tree planting on Arbor Day.
   This year, a great western maple was planted on East Curlis Avenue near Toll Gate Grammar School, just off South Main Street.
   The Friday morning planting in perfect weather was handled by Pennington Department of Public Works employee Morris Fabian, who once again this year explained each step of the planting process to the young students gathered closely around him.
   Pointing to a ground-level tree stump near where he was planting this year’s tree, Mr. Fabian told the students that the great western will replace a diseased tree that had to be cut down. He’d brought along cross-cut sections of a healthy tree and a diseased tree, which had a large hollow space in the center.
   Pointing to the hollowed cross-cut section, Mr. Fabian asked the students: "What could happen if a big storm or hurricane came along and hit a tree that had such a big hollow area?"
   "The tree might come down," one of the students said.
   "That’s right. It could land on your parents’ car or your house. Then you could have some big problems on your hands."
   Sponsored by the borough’s Shade Tree Commission, this year’s Arbor Day observance included Toll Gate first-graders, from the classes of Deanna Cohn, Liza Hilland and Karen Emhof.
   Introduced by Shade Tree Commission Chairwoman Lisa Foster, two of the first-graders, Ellie Paige and Delia Lawver, read aloud poems they had composed for the occasion.
   Ellie’s poem, titled "Trees," dealt with the importance of trees as homes for wildlife. It read:
   Trees, do not cut them down.
   They bring joy to nature.
   They are homes for other living things.
   Imagine if you were a bird
   and someone cut down your home.
   If I were you I would not cut down trees.
   Delia’s poem, "I Love Trees," reflected her commitment to take care of trees. It read:
   We need trees.
   Trees we need.
   For the air that we breathe,
   For the birds that sing so sweet.
   We will care for all the trees,
   And take care of all their leaves.
   Mr. Fabian stressed that the planting involved what he called "recycling of trees."
   "We collect fallen leaves in Pennington and use some of them to make compost," he said while packing the nutritious compost around the roots of the new tree.
   On the surface, the tree was protected by mulch. "Mulch is wood, so of course it comes from trees, too," Mr. Fabian said. "It’s important to have plenty of mulch at the outside edge of the area cleared for the trees."