ANJEC ENVIRONMENTAL CONGRESS 2026 — Sustainable Montclair

The talkOpening

1Imagining my town without trees. Montclair streets as they are today, then digitally altered to show them without their trees. Drag through the same streets yourself.

I am not an arborist. I am an advocate, and so are you. Two things: trees are climate infrastructure; environmental commissioners have to be advocates for climate-resilient towns. — 2

The beginning of my tree advocacy work I bought a house across the street from a grove of about 46 native oaks. Half of those oaks were cut down for a plastic grass baseball field. Montclair still has no updated tree ordinance. — 3

A stand of mature oaks at Woodman Field, and the same oaks with their crowns cut, just before they were felled. — 4

Aerial view of the same corner at Woodman Field: the oak grove before, and the artificial-turf baseball field after. — 5Aerial imagery: Google Earth.

2022 land surface temperature map of the Woodman Field area, measured before the oaks were removed and the artificial-turf baseball field added. The area was already running hot from the artificial turf football field beside it. — 6

THREE QUESTIONS · HANDS UP Before I start — tell me where you are — 7

Part oneWhy it matters

Our reality: The world is about to pass 1.5°C We must plan for this in our — 9

UNE P · LIMITING OVERSHOOT · PAGE 69 “Many interventions can achieve simultaneous adaptation and mitigation goals — increasing appropriate urban tree canopy coverage, for example, reduces the urban heat island effect, lowering heat-related morbidity and — 10

THE S TAKE S Shade = Public Health Heat kills more Americans than any other weather. 29 New Jersey heat deaths in one heat wave, July 2026. — 11

New Jersey tree canopy is shrinking: towns and suburbs lose about 2,600 acres of tree cover a year; 114,000 acres of upland forest lost 1986 to 2012 and 9,700 acres 2015 to 2020; 12 percent of New Jersey paved or built, the highest of any state. — 12

WHY YO UR TOWN IS REQUIRED TO HAVE ONE New Jersey already made this mandatory Through the stormwater permit — not a tree ordinance. Requirement added to the — 13

“IT’S MY PRO PERTY” We cannot do whatever we like on our own land. We cannot: Pave the whole lot — 14

CAN A TOWN REGULATE TREES O N P RIVATE PRO PERTY? Yes. Our Supreme Court settled it in 2009. Shore Builders Association v. Township of Jackson You may require a — 15

An interesting case to watch. Maplewood twice refused a permit to remove a London plane 72 inches across, possibly 271 years old. — 16Article image: The New York Times, 31 August 2026.

A New Jersey precedent worth reading: look at the Pinelands. New Jersey already writes tree protection into binding land use regulation. N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.23(a): all clearing and soil disturbance must be limited to what is necessary to accommodate a permitted use. N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.23(b)(1): where clearing is permitted, it must avoid wooded areas where practical, including New Jersey Record Trees as published by NJDEP. N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.22: a municipal ordinance in the Pinelands cannot be certified unless it provides that protection or its equivalent. — 17

Part twoFind your data

WHERE TO FIND CANOPY DATA How to get the data for your town OPRA the records Permits, planting and removal logs, contractor bills. — 19

Part threeWhat the data said

MO NTC LAIR, 2020 –2025 What the town’s own records showed 4,786 2,133 — 21

Replaced, only on paper. June 2022 — before the permit trees removed to be replanted — 22Aerial imagery: Google Earth. Address withheld.

Sixteen to one 16 : 1 saplings to replace the shade of one mature tree — 23

Count first. Then ask: Which way is it going? Count your trees and permits ↓ ↓ GOING DOWN — 24

Part fourWrite it

The checklist: ten parts that make a tree ordinance real. Bigger tree, more trees back; real shade trees only; hold the certificate of occupancy; a higher bar for big trees; check it, then check it again; stop whole-lot clearing; establish a tree fund; send the money where it is needed; no cutting before site plan review; price the fee at full cost. — 26

Hold the certificate of occupancy 429 homeowners with tree permits: 76% 54% — 27

Four jobs an environmental commission can do The approved tree list Ordinance education Native shade trees for the climate we’ll have — 28

THE TOWN AVERAG E HI DES THE P ROBL EM Set your canopy goal block by block, not town-wide A 10% town-wide goal: 60% block → +6 points — 29

Part fiveGet it passed

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR Common Discourses of Climate Delay “We don’t have the staff for this.” “The draft isn’t perfect.” — 31

Part sixEnforce it

A recorded replacement is a promise, not a tree. 3,035 promised replacements on private permits confirmed planted — 33

Three ways to make a penalty mean something: count each tree and each day; fine both the owner and the tree company; charge what the tree was worth. A 30-inch tree taken without a permit: Montclair $1,000, Millburn $5,200. — 34

Six things to get started OPRA your records Permits, logs, bills Score your ordinance — 35

Trees are infrastructure for public health and climate resilience. A tree ordinance protects your town’s future. — 36

Sources and further reading

Everything cited in the talk

Everything cited in the talk, with links where they exist. The Montclair figures come from tree removal permits and Township records obtained under the Open Public Records Act.

Climate and tree canopy

Warming will pass 1.5°C within a few years. UNEP, Limiting Overshoot (2 September 2026).
“Many interventions can achieve simultaneous adaptation and mitigation goals — increasing appropriate urban tree canopy coverage, for example, reduces the urban heat island effect, lowering heat-related morbidity and mortality while also storing carbon.” UNEP, Limiting Overshoot, p. 69, citing Iungman et al. (2023).
“Urban” means built-up land, not cities. NJDEP Urban & Community Forestry Program, authorized by the NJ Shade Tree and Community Forestry Assistance Act, N.J.S.A. 13:1L-17.1 et seq.
New York City’s goal of at least 30% canopy by 2035. NYC Urban Forest Agenda, Forest for All NYC. Current canopy about 22%.

Heat, shade and equity

Heat kills more Americans than any other kind of weather. NOAA / National Weather Service weather fatality statistics. Thirty-year averages, 1994–2023: heat 183 a year, floods 88, tornadoes 72, hurricanes 48, lightning 36.
29 heat deaths in New Jersey, July 2026. New Jersey Department of Health, news release, 14 July 2026. Ten counties; ages mid-30s to 80s.
Cooling accelerates above about 40% canopy; up to 7–9°F. Ziter, Pedersen, Kucharik & Turner, PNAS 116(15):7575–7580 (2019). Air temperature measured by bicycle transect.
The blocks with the least canopy are the blocks that were redlined. Locke et al., “Residential housing segregation and urban tree canopy in 37 US cities,” npj Urban Sustainability (2021). About 23% canopy in formerly D-graded areas against about 43% in A-graded areas.

New Jersey’s canopy

About 2,600 acres of tree cover lost a year in towns and suburbs, roughly 2008–2013; most of it replaced by grass. Nowak & Greenfield, “Declining urban and community tree cover in the United States,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 32 (2018): 32–55. The paper: “Most of the tree cover loss was to grass/herbaceous (−0.9%) or impervious cover types.”
About 114,000 acres of upland forest lost, 1986–2012 (roughly 7%). Lathrop, Bognar & Hasse, Changing Landscapes in the Garden State, Rutgers/Rowan (2016).
About 9,700 acres of upland forest converted, 2015–2020. Rutgers Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, Changing Landscapes in the Garden State, 1986–2020 (2025). 1,936 acres a year, 2015–2020, against 745 a year in 2012–2015.
New Jersey has the highest share of paved and built land of any state, about 12%. Nowak & Greenfield, Landscape and Urban Planning (2012). From imagery around 2005.
Projected majority urban land by 2050. Nowak et al., USDA Forest Service General Technical Report NRS-62 (2010). New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Most recent statewide urban canopy estimate: about 42.6%. PlanIT Geo and EarthDefine for the Arbor Day Foundation and USDA Forest Service. 2021–2023 imagery, 2023 Census urban areas. Different boundaries and method from the figures above — not a measure of change.

The law

Every Tier A municipality must adopt and enforce a tree removal and replacement ordinance; deadline 1 May 2024. NJDEP Tier A MS4 Master General Permit. Requirement added in the 2022 permit renewal.
NJDEP model tree removal and replacement ordinance, November 2023 — free, and adoptable as it stands. NJDEP model ordinance (PDF). NJDEP describes it as a guidance document and template that may be used in whole or in part.
A tree fund is not itself required by the state. Tier A permit and NJDEP model ordinance, above. The permit requires an ordinance covering removal and replacement on all lands. Payment in lieu, and the fund that receives it, are options in the model — adopted, for example, in Eatontown Ord. 04-2024 and Haddon Heights Ord. 2025:1578.
Towns may require tree permits, require replacement trees, and charge a fee in lieu. On the fee: “So long as the replacement fees do not exceed the municipality’s costs for administration and replacement, they are legitimate elements of the regulatory scheme.” New Jersey Shore Builders Association v. Township of Jackson, 199 N.J. 38 (2009), A-83-2007, decided 13 May 2009.
Maplewood’s refusal of a permit for a 72-inch London plane. The New York Times, 31 August 2026.
New Jersey towns already refusing or restricting removal: Cedar Grove and Verona. Cedar Grove Ch. 246; Verona Ch. 493 § 493-21. Verona: no more than two healthy mature trees per property per year without a Planning Board hearing; extraordinary trees of 36 inches or more require a Council resolution.
Open records requests. New Jersey Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq..

The Pinelands precedent

All clearing and soil disturbance must be limited to what is necessary to accommodate a permitted use. N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.23(a), Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan.
Where practical, clearing must avoid wooded areas, including New Jersey’s Record Trees as published by NJDEP. N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.23(b)(1). Applies to development other than agriculture, forestry and resource extraction. The rule refers to the Record Trees list NJDEP first published in 1991 and updates periodically.
A Pinelands municipal master plan or land use ordinance cannot be certified unless it protects Pinelands vegetation — in the rule’s own terms or an equivalent. N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.22, Vegetation Management Program. Pinelands towns repeat the Record Trees language in their own codes — for example, Hammonton § 175-136 and Lacey Township’s Pinelands standards.
The Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. New Jersey Pinelands Commission.
New Jersey’s registry of its largest trees. NJ Forest Service, Big Tree Conservation Program. Formerly the Champion Tree Program; the Official New Jersey Big Tree Registry.

Penalties

Municipal fines capped at $2,000. N.J.S.A. 40:49-5, as amended by P.L. 2005, c. 269. Up to 90 days, $2,000, or 90 days community service, per violation.
Each tree and each day a separate violation. Adopted in Millburn (Ch. 11), Westfield (Ch. 29A), Livingston (Ch. 306 § 306-9), Madison (Ch. 178), Denville, Cedar Grove (Ch. 246 § 246-14) and Nutley (Ch. 665 § 665-26).
Fining owner and contractor separately. Maplewood Ch. 227 § 227-12. $2,000 against each, reaching $4,000 on one tree. Summit fines the contractor separately at full replacement cost.
Charging what the tree was worth. Westfield Ch. 29A; Summit Ch. 29 § 29-11; Princeton. Westfield: the ISA trunk formula retail value, assessed by the Tree Preservation Commission, plus up to $2,000 if the violator does not comply within 30 days. Summit: twice the replacement cost of the trees taken, plus up to $2,000, and the court may order restitution or appraised value, whichever is greater. Princeton: the court may order restitution at appraised value, plus an hourly administrative fee at real staff cost.
A 30-inch tree taken without a permit: Montclair $1,000, Millburn $5,200. Millburn Ch. 11; Montclair Ch. 324. Millburn: up to $2,000 in fines plus $3,200 in replacement trees (8 × $400), each tree and each day a separate offense. Millburn regulates trees over 10 inches on private property; the owner-occupied exemption applies only where neither tree exceeds 18 inches. Montclair Ch. 324 carries no restitution or mitigation provision.
A statutory tool most towns do not use. N.J.S.A. 40:64-12(b); adopted in Verona § 493-16. Allows a shade tree commission to require a replacement assessment — the appraised value, or a formula based on square inches of trunk cross-section at up to $27 a square inch.

Ordinance design and compliance

Replacement compliance falls sharply where there is construction: 76% of homeowners planted what their permits required without construction, 54% with it; 85% knew the rule. Conway, Khatib, Tetreult & Almas, “A Private Tree By-Law’s Contribution to Maintaining a Diverse Urban Forest,” Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 48(1):9–26 (2022). Toronto; 429 responses, self-reported, so compliance may be overstated.
A tree’s crown spreads about 25 times the width of its trunk. Coombes, Martin & Slater, “Defining the allometry of stem and crown diameter of urban trees,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 44 (2019). 400 free-standing trees in Norwich and Peterborough, four species, ratios of 24 to 27.
Street-tree growth rates. Mailloux et al., PLOS One 19(7):e0304447 (2024). 126,362 New York City street trees: Silver Linden fastest at 0.510 in/yr, London planetree slowest at 0.163.
Municipal forestry accreditation: 143 of New Jersey’s 564 municipalities accredited in 2022. NJDEP Environmental Trends, Urban and Community Forests; requirements: NJDEP accreditation. Accreditation requires a current five-year Community Forest Management Plan, CORE training, eight continuing-education credits across at least two people, and an Annual Accomplishment Report by 15 February.

Tools

i-Tree Canopy — free canopy estimates from aerial imagery. USDA Forest Service.
Tree Equity Score — need-based canopy goals by neighborhood. American Forests.
The Urban Heat Island Effect and Land Surface Temperature in New Jersey. NJDEP, Heat Hub NJ. Interactive map; land surface temperature, summer 2022.
“The NJDEP Model Ordinance & Municipal Tree Ordinances in NJ.” New Jersey Shade Tree Federation and NJAPZA (2024): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Three-part webinar series.

Tree Ordinances for a Climate Crisis Reality