A Sustainable Montclair CampaignAugust 2026

Plant Tomorrow'sCanopy Today.

Roughly eighty percent of Montclair's ground is privately owned — residents can ensure that a child today has a climate resilient town tomorrow.

The trees in the photographs below were planted a long time ago by residents like you. Slide the handle in each picture to imagine what Montclair would feel like without them. Help ensure these images never become reality. Plant a tree this fall.

Treeless Montclair

Let's make sure the “after” in these photos stays in our imagination

Twenty Montclair locations, photographed this year. Drag the handle in each picture to see what our town looks like without trees.

A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
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A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›
A Montclair street with its mature trees removed
The same Montclair street, shaded by mature trees
‹›

Every photograph here was taken by Sustainable Montclair — most in 2026, and the bare-branched comparison in December 2025. In each pair, the version without trees is a digital simulation of the same view.

Why This Matters

What we are losing, and why it won't wait

−2,133 Net canopy lossTrees removed against real replacements, 2020–2025, from our own records request.
~80% Privately ownedMontclair's land — and with it, most of Montclair's canopy.
40% Where cooling acceleratesBlock-scale canopy above which daytime summer cooling jumps. Montclair sits below it.
436 Caterpillar speciesFed by a single group of trees — the oaks — in our region.

Montclair is losing trees faster than it replaces them. Most of our canopy stands on private land, which means the Township cannot plant its way out of this alone. And the big trees in these photographs were planted decades ago — many at the same time, which means many will die around the same time. That doesn't bode well for our climate resiliency.

We can fix this by planting today for tomorrow.

And right now, one more thing

Planting is the long game. The short game is the shade tree ordinance still waiting on the Township Council — and a mature tree kept is worth far more than a sapling planted. The next meeting is Monday, August 11, Council Chambers, 205 Claremont Avenue; it starts at 5:30pm, and the public session usually begins around 7pm. After that, check the Council meeting schedule for upcoming dates.

Email the Council.
A short message in your own words is all it takes. If you write one sentence, make it this: "Please pass the strongest possible tree ordinance — with a Certificate of Occupancy hold, real canopy replacement, and protection for our largest trees."
Come to a meeting.
Numbers in the room matter. Even if you don't speak, showing up counts — and holding a sign for a strong tree ordinance counts.
The key asks, in brief.
Replace big trees with real canopy. Replace dead and hazard trees too. Close the permit loopholes so a lot can't be cleared a few trees at a time. Protect our biggest and oldest trees. Hold the Certificate of Occupancy until replacement trees are in the ground. Verify that they were planted and that they survive. Direct Tree Fund money first to the lowest-canopy, hottest neighbourhoods. And measure our canopy — we can't manage what we've never counted.

The full case, and the Council's email addresses →

Canopy-loss figures from The Vanishing Canopy, Sustainable Montclair's analysis of 1,464 Chapter 324 removal permits obtained under OPRA, 2020–2025. Cooling threshold: Ziter, Pedersen, Kucharik & Turner, PNAS 116(15), 2019 — daytime summer temperatures at block scale in Madison, Wisconsin. Caterpillar figures: National Wildlife Federation keystone plant list for Ecoregion 8, from research by Dr. Doug Tallamy. Every treeless image on this page is a digital simulation of the photograph beside it.

Sustainable Montclair · sustainablemontclair@gmail.com · 2026