Shade Tree Advisory Committee

WESTWOOD SHADE TREE COMMITTEE APPROVED MINUTES Tuesday, April 13, 2021 – 6:30 pm 1. Call to Order – the meeting was called to order by the Chairman Fred Rella at 6:30pm 2. Members Present: Fred Rella, Beth Staples, Jeff Ocher, and Casey Christopher, and Councilmember Jodi Murphy 3. Minutes - The minutes of the March 16, 2021 meeting were approved as corrected. 4. Items for Discussion a. Arbor Day: Borough Clerk Karen Hughes will obtain the Proclamation. It was agreed that a tree would be planted at Overbrook Park (the Bird Sanctuary) on Saturday, May 1 at 10:00am in celebration of Arbor Day. Preference was for a ginko, copper beech, or sycamore. Councilwoman Murphy will contact the DPW to have them order the tree, check with the Borough Council on who to invite to the event, and arrange for publicity. b. Volunteer Ordinance: The ordinance has been approved by the Borough Council. I give approval to used volunteers to plant in any location deemed safe to plant by the DPW and marked by the DPW. WST will call 411 to mark the area and no heavy equipment may be used. Council also gave approval for the WSTC to create a small nursery (possibly an Eagle Scout project). Councilwoman Murphy will check with Dumont on how they created and operate their town nursery. c. Spring Tree Planting: DPW will move forward with 25 trees. Current requests are at 23-25 trees. Councilwoman Murphy will follow up with Councilman Montana, the DPW liaison, and Rick Woods will order the trees. d. Door hanger distribution: WSTC will distribute the door hangers using the Borough’s election district map (appended, page 3). Districts were assigned as follows: Fred (2), Casey (5), Beth (4), Jeff (8), and Jodi (3). The remaining districts (1, 6, 7) will be addressed for the Fall planting. e. Woodcliff Lake Ash Borer Project: WCL has asked the WSTC to join them. WCL wanted to know how many and where are the ash trees within the Borough. After discussion, it was decided that Councilwoman Murphy would ask the DPW how many ash trees were located in the Borough at our last inventory. Beth Staples would reach out to the Rutgers Bergen County Cooperative Extension program on invasive species and bugs. 5. Adjournment – the meeting was adjourned at 7:10pm Next meeting will be May 11, 2021 at 6:30pm Action Items: 1. Dissemination of door hangers: All members 2. Town nursery, check with Dumont – Jodi 3. Spring Tree Planting, check with liaison and DPW – Jodi 4. WCL Ash Borer Project – check with DPW on number and location – Jodi 5. WCL Ash Borer Project – info from Rutgers BCCE - Beth