ANJEC Environmental Congress, September 2026

Tree Ordinances for a Climate Crisis Reality

The slides from the talk, and every source it cites, with links to the originals.

Anna Grossman, Sustainable Montclair

The talkOpening

1Tree ordinances for a climate crisis realityAnna Grossman is an environmental advocate in Montclair, New Jersey, and the director of Sustainable Montclair. This talk is about tree ordinances, and about why she is fighting for a stronger one in her town.It opens with a 90-second video: Montclair streets as they are today, and then the same streets digitally altered to show them without their trees. She made it after walking those streets every day and asking why the town was not protecting the one thing that makes it both beautiful and climate resilient.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.
2Trees are climate infrastructureThis talk comes from an advocate, not an arborist — and environmental commissioners are advocates too.Two things matter most here. Trees are climate infrastructure. And environmental commissioners have to be advocates for climate-resilient towns.A commissioner holds an important place in municipal government, and from that place can educate elected leaders about sustainability and climate resilience. Much of the work a commission already does is public health work, because environmental health is public health.Montclair has prohibited gas leaf blowers year-round for three years and counting, and that protects the health of everyone in town every single day. Protecting and growing a town's urban tree canopy does exactly the same thing.
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.
3Forty-six oaksAll advocacy starts with something personal. In 2018 Grossman bought a house across the street from a grove of about forty-six native oaks, some of them older than the town. They shaded the whole block, blocked the wind, soaked up the rain, and made a delicate sshhhhh sound in the breeze.In 2023 the Montclair board of education cut down half of them for an artificial turf — plastic — baseball field.That is where this advocacy began. Montclair had a tree ordinance, and it did nothing. It asked for one sapling per tree. It had no way to stop the loss, and no way to replace the canopy.
A stand of mature oaks at Woodman Field, and the same oaks with their crowns cut, just before they were felled.
4Before and after, from the streetSome of those oaks before, and then after their crowns were cut — photographed just before they were felled.
Aerial view of the same corner at Woodman Field: the oak grove before, and the artificial-turf baseball field after.
5Before and after, from aboveThe same corner seen from the air: before, and after.Aerial 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.
6The heat was already thereThis is the land surface heat map from 2022, the year before the oaks came down. Everything red is 113 degrees or hotter. That is land surface temperature, not air temperature — surfaces read much hotter than the air above them.Look at where the red already is. The area was running hot from the artificial turf football field beside it, before a single oak came down and before the plastic baseball field went in. When these temperatures are next measured, the whole area is expected to sit in that top band.Three years later, Montclair still has no updated tree ordinance.
THREE QUESTIONS · HANDS UP Before I start — tell me where you are
7Three questions about your own townThree questions worth answering before going any further.One. Does your town have a strong tree ordinance?Two. Is your town growing its canopy, losing trees — or is the answer simply unknown?Three, and this is the big one. Should a town be allowed to say no? To refuse a permit to cut down a healthy tree?

Part oneWhy it matters

PART ONE Why it matters. Trees cool our streets and soak up stormwater — and in New Jersey, every town is required to have a tree ordinance.
8A canopy goal looks like thisMost people have heard about New York City's goal of increasing its tree canopy to 30 percent. That is what a canopy goal looks like when a government takes it seriously.
Our reality: The world is about to pass 1.5°C We must plan for this in our
9Our realityIn September 2026 the United Nations Environment Programme published a report called Limiting Overshoot. Its finding, in brief, is that the earth will pass one and a half degrees Celsius of warming within the next few years.This is no longer a worst-case scenario. It is the reality, and it is what towns have to plan for. For environmental commissioners, that planning is the job.
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
10What the report says about canopy“Increasing appropriate urban tree canopy coverage reduces the urban heat island effect, lowering heat-related morbidity and mortality while also storing carbon.”One note on the word urban. In forestry it does not mean cities. It means built-up land — streets, downtowns, neighborhoods. New Jersey's own program is called Urban and Community Forestry, and it serves every town.
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.
11Shade = public healthHeat kills more Americans than any other kind of weather. In July 2026, New Jersey recorded 29 heat deaths in a single heat wave.Shade does not work a little at a time. When a neighborhood reaches about 40 percent tree cover, that is when summer air temperatures drop sharply — by seven to nine degrees. Protecting public health means getting above 40 percent.And canopy follows the redlines. The blocks with the least canopy are typically the blocks where banks once refused to lend to Black and immigrant families. Increasing canopy is environmental justice work too.
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.
12New Jersey is losing treesBefore looking at one town's records, it helps to know how New Jersey's canopy is doing overall.In the state's towns and suburbs, between about 2008 and 2013, tree cover was reduced by about 2,600 acres a year.In its forests, New Jersey lost about 114,000 acres between 1986 and 2012, and is still losing about 1,900 acres a year, mostly to development.New Jersey also has the highest share of paved and built land of any state. Every acre paved is an acre that can be assumed will never grow canopy again.
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
13Why your town is required to have oneHere is the good news: New Jersey has already made tree ordinances mandatory, through the stormwater permit.NJDEP published a model tree ordinance in 2023. It is on the department's website, it is free, and a council can adopt it as it stands. The deadline to have one in force was May 1, 2024 — so it is worth checking whether your town complied.The minimum is an ordinance covering removal and replacement everywhere in town, including private property. But that template is a floor. The state sets the floor; the town sets the ceiling. A commission's job is to guide its town to reach as high as the science — and climate change — demands.
“IT’S MY PRO PERTY” We cannot do whatever we like on our own land. We cannot: Pave the whole lot
14We cannot do whatever we like on our own landA familiar objection: “It's my property. It's my tree. I can do what I want with it.”But no one can do whatever they want on their own land. You cannot pave the whole lot, build to the property line, add a third floor, pipe a downspout into the sewer, or build a deck without a permit.When what happens on one lot affects other people, it stops being private business. The same is true of trees — and the New Jersey Supreme Court agrees.
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
15What the law already allowsIn 2009, in Shore Builders v. Jackson, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a town's tree ordinance, its replacement rule, and its tree fund.So three things are settled. A town may require a permit, including on private property. It may require replacements, and decide how many. And it may take a fee instead.There is one limit. The in-lieu fee cannot exceed what it would cost the town itself to buy the tree, plant it, keep it alive until it is established, and administer the process. A fee priced below that makes paying more attractive than planting.This is not legal advice. Discuss it with your town attorney.
An interesting case to watch. Maplewood twice refused a permit to remove a London plane 72 inches across, possibly 271 years old.
16An interesting case to watchThat case settled whether towns can regulate trees. It did not settle whether a town can refuse a permit outright. That question will probably be tested more as New Jersey navigates a climate crisis and a housing crisis at the same time.Maplewood is the case to watch. The township has refused a permit to remove a 72-inch London plane that may be 271 years old. A developer wants it gone in order to put two houses on what was originally a single lot, and his lawyers have signaled a suit they call precedent-setting. It was covered in the New York Times.No New Jersey court appears to have ruled on this question. But towns are already doing it — Cedar Grove, Verona, and others.The lesson: establish the standard before the application arrives. Pass a robust tree ordinance now.Article 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.
17Look at the PinelandsNew Jersey already writes tree protection into the binding rules for development. The Pinelands is the clearest example.In the Pinelands, state rules limit all clearing and soil disturbance to what a permitted use actually needs. Where clearing is allowed, it has to avoid wooded areas where practical — including the Record Trees published by NJDEP, the state's list of its largest known trees.And a Pinelands town's master plan and land use ordinance cannot be certified unless they protect Pinelands vegetation, in the rule's own terms or an equivalent. So Pinelands towns carry this protection in their own codes.Protecting existing trees when land is developed is not a new idea in New Jersey. It is already state policy across the Pinelands.

Part twoFind your data

PART TWO Find your data.
18Let's talk about dataBefore anyone can argue for a stronger ordinance, they need their own town's numbers.
WHERE TO FIND CANOPY DATA How to get the data for your town OPRA the records Permits, planting and removal logs, contractor bills.
19How to get your town's numbersMontclair had no tree inventory. Its only canopy measurement was from 2016. Its state accreditation had lapsed. So Sustainable Montclair answered the question itself — and any commission can do the same. Here is how.One. File an OPRA request for several years of tree removal permits, the planting log, the removal log, and contractor bills.Two. Catalog and sort. One permit per row. Separate shade trees from decorative and screening trees, because only shade trees count as canopy. And notice what the permit does not ask — understanding the gaps in a town's data matters as much as the data itself.Three. Find the town's canopy coverage percentage, and its date. If there isn't one, i-Tree Canopy is free and the number can be calculated with their tool.Four. Find out who checks and verifies that trees are replanted. In Montclair, no one did. Too often a replacement was no more than a promise.Five. Check the town's accreditation. Only 143 of New Jersey's 564 towns were accredited with the New Jersey Urban and Community Forestry Program as of 2022.

Part threeWhat the data said

PART THREE What the data said. What six years of Montclair’s records showed.
20What Montclair's records showedHere is what six years of Montclair's own permit records showed.
MO NTC LAIR, 2020 –2025 What the town’s own records showed 4,786 2,133
21Six years of lossAt least 4,786 trees came down. Replacement trees did not make the town whole, and every single year was a loss. The net result was about 2,133 shade trees not replaced.More than 20 percent of the replacement trees on private property were privacy screens — arborvitae, which are basically fences. They are not even on Montclair's approved tree list, and they were approved anyway.And in 2025, Montclair planted zero trees with its own budget.
Replaced, only on paper. June 2022 — before the permit trees removed to be replanted
22Replaced, only on paperThis is what removing twenty-three trees looks like from the sky.The permit for this lot said twenty-three trees were being removed. The permit also said twenty-three would be replanted. The species listed? Green Giant arborvitae. Nothing was paid in lieu to the tree fund.One picture shows why Montclair's current ordinance, and the way the town manages it, is a failure. That canopy is gone. To recover it, this property owner would need to plant 16 trees for every shade tree removed — and that is not even what the town's new draft ordinance asks for. Sustainable Montclair is fighting for 4.Aerial imagery: Google Earth. Address withheld.
Sixteen to one 16 : 1 saplings to replace the shade of one mature tree
23Why 16A tree's branches spread about 25 times as wide as its trunk. A three-foot diameter tree shades about 4,400 square feet. A sapling planted next year will shade only 276 square feet by 2040.To be clear, this is not an argument against replacement planting. Towns like Madison get it right when they ask for 10 new trees for every 30-inch tree removed. The problem is that there is no luxury of time. Those saplings will be magnificent in 2070. They will not provide enough shade in 2040 to protect public health.Keeping big trees standing has to be the priority. A big tree is existing canopy that simply keeps getting bigger — climate infrastructure that grows more valuable with time.Both preservation and replacement are critical for climate resilience.
Count first. Then ask: Which way is it going? Count your trees and permits ↓ ↓ GOING DOWN
24Which way is it going?Once the numbers are in hand, use them. Count the trees. Count the permits. Analyze the data. Then ask which way it is going.If the canopy is going down: stop the loss and start planting.If it is flat, or unknown: it is probably going down. Again — preserve and plant.If it is going up, and above 40 percent: protect what is there, and celebrate what the town is doing. Then go end the use of gas leaf blowers.

Part fourWrite it

PART FOUR Write it. What makes a good tree ordinance.
25What makes a good tree ordinanceTen elements separate an ordinance that works from one that only looks like it does.
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.
26Ten thingsAll ten are on the screen, and on the Sustainable Montclair website. Every one of them either stops the loss or replaces the loss, and together they are what makes the state's model stronger. Four matter most.Number four: save the big trees. Preserve as much as possible, with a strong standard against unnecessary removals.Number six: stop whole-lot clearing. Cap how many trees can come down at once, and send anything above that cap to the planning board. In Montclair, about 6 percent of permits accounted for 30 percent of all trees removed.Number nine: no permits, and no cutting, before site plan review. Otherwise the site is cleared first and the only question left is replacements — the window for preservation has already closed. That is exactly what happened to Montclair's oaks.And number five: someone has the job of checking. Someone is assigned, and takes it seriously. Without that, none of the rest is real.
Hold the certificate of occupancy 429 homeowners with tree permits: 76% 54%
27What was missing? A compliance checkWithholding certificates of occupancy until plantings are verified is one of the most powerful tools a town has.Researchers in Toronto surveyed 429 homeowners who had taken out tree permits. Where there was no construction, 76 percent planted what they promised. On construction sites, only 54 percent planted what their permits required.So development is where compliance fails most. The fix is simple: withhold the certificate of occupancy until replacement trees are confirmed in the ground, or paid in lieu.
Four jobs an environmental commission can do The approved tree list Ordinance education Native shade trees for the climate we’ll have
28Towns have more capacity than they thinkA common objection is that the town lacks the staff. An arborist is necessary, but volunteers can carry a great deal of the load — and volunteers are often the people who care about this most, so who better to tend it?An environmental commission can build the approved tree list, choosing species suited to the climate of 30 years from now. The commission can follow up with applicants, photograph and log replacements, and help the town understand which areas need more trees.And nothing educates faster than a law. Once a strong ordinance is in place, the commission can teach the town why it matters. Consider gas leaf blowers. Education alone is not working. The only two towns in New Jersey without gas leaf blowers are the two towns that prohibit them by law. No amount of education could have achieved that on its own.
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
29Set your canopy goal block by block, not town-wideA town goal has to be set carefully. Say the goal is to increase canopy by 10 percent. On a block already at 60 percent, that is six more percentage points. On a block at 10 percent, it is one.What happens is that the neighborhood that needs shade the most gains the least. The town average climbs while the hottest blocks stay hot.So this comes down to equity, and that is where the tree fund — built from in-lieu fees and permit fees — comes in. Planting money has to be directed equitably. This is public health, and a town's most vulnerable residents need their neighborhoods' climate resilience taken seriously. More and more, it is literally a matter of life and death.Write it into the law. Send the tree fund first to the hottest blocks with the fewest trees, and start undoing a legacy of redlining that has no place in today's reality.

Part fiveGet it passed

PART FIVE Get it passed. Fight for the ordinance your town’s future deserves.
30Get it passedFight for the ordinance your town's future deserves.
WHAT YOU WILL HEAR Common Discourses of Climate Delay “We don’t have the staff for this.” “The draft isn’t perfect.”
31Common discourses of climate delayExpect the usual litany:“We don't have the staff for this.”“The draft isn't perfect.”“It's already expensive to get a tree removed.”“What if someone doesn't want more trees in their yard?”“What if someone can't fit more trees in their yard?”“We need software.”Guide the council through what it costs, do the administrative analysis, make it operationally simple where possible — and then advocate, advocate, advocate. Getting this over the line is a commissioner's job.It is also worth checking what the town allocates to planting versus removals. The planting budget should be the larger one.

Part sixEnforce it

PART SIX Enforce it. Your ordinance depends on this.
32Enforce itYour ordinance depends on this.
A recorded replacement is a promise, not a tree. 3,035 promised replacements on private permits confirmed planted
33Everything rests on someone lookingA review of how Montclair had been handling permits found that the problem was not only enforcement. Permits were being granted that were incomplete, and that listed replacement trees which were not even on the town's approved list.And no one checked to verify whether any of the trees listed as replacements actually made it into the ground. In Montclair, between 2020 and 2025, not one replacement was verified.Everything on the checklist rests on someone looking. It is important enough to say twice.
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.
34Strong fines, strong ordinanceState law caps an individual town fine at $2,000, so stack penalties on top of one another. Count every tree and every day as a separate violation. Fine the owner and the tree company separately.And if a tree is removed without a permit, charge what that tree — as it was — was actually worth, not the price of a nursery sapling. An arborist can appraise it, and some towns already do this: Westfield charges the appraised value using the ISA trunk formula, and Summit charges twice the replacement cost or the appraised value, whichever is greater. Those are the models to look at.A 30-inch tree taken without a permit carries a maximum fine of $1,000 in Montclair. In Millburn it is $5,200 — $2,000 in fines plus $3,200 in replacement fees — and it climbs every day the trees go unplanted.
Six things to get started OPRA your records Permits, logs, bills Score your ordinance
35Six things to get startedPut in your OPRA requests.Find your tree canopy measurement, and its date.Score your ordinance using the checklist, and make a plan for a new or updated one.Determine your tree budget: pruning, planting, removals.Watch the New Jersey Shade Tree Federation and New Jersey Association of Planning and Zoning Administrators three-part webinar series on the state's sample ordinance, with the towns that have been through it and the arborists who inspect for them.Learn more at sustainablemontclair.org.
Trees are infrastructure for public health and climate resilience. A tree ordinance protects your town’s future.
36A tree ordinance protects your town's futureTrees are infrastructure — for public health, and for climate resilience.Environmental commissioners are on the front lines of making public health and climate resilience a priority in their towns.Create the strongest tree ordinance possible, and then fight for it. Because it matters far more than most people realize, and sooner than anyone thinks.

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

Heat, shade and equity

New Jersey’s canopy

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

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

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.

Further reading

Montclair’s data

At least 4,786 trees removed 2020–2025; 2,133 shade trees not replaced; more than a fifth of private replacements were privacy screens; no trees planted from the municipal budget in 2025; 3,035 replacement trees recorded on 1,464 private permits and none confirmed planted; only 2,121 of those were canopy species.

Sustainable Montclair’s analysis of 1,464 Chapter 324 tree removal permits and Township planting and removal records, obtained under OPRA.

Case 02 — 23 trees removed, 23 Green Giant arborvitae recorded as replacements, $0 paid in lieu.

Township tree removal permit application; aerial imagery Google Earth, June 2022 and October 2025. Address withheld.

Sustainable Montclair, Montclair, New Jersey. An independent, volunteer environmental advocacy organization, not affiliated with the Township of Montclair. Nothing in this talk is legal advice; discuss with your town attorney.