Green Infrastructure / Trees, Rain Gardens & More Green Roofs
Green Infrastructure
Sustainable JC’s Green Infrastructure initiative focuses on the idea of reducing flooding and the incidence of combined sewer overflow (CSO) events in our neighborhoods. It is an opportunity for improved ground-water infiltration to recharge underground aquifers and a reduction of pollution entering our surrounding rivers and even our streets.
Many people don’t know that the sewer system in Jersey City, referred to as a CSO system (Combined Sewer Overflow), works by combining both residential wastewater and stormwater underground to be treated in a shared facility. The system has a limited amount of capacity, which means during periods of heavy rainfall, when the system is overburdened, the excess overflow that breaches the capacity of our underground sewer system (raw sewage and all) is discharged into our local rivers, also sometimes backing up onto city streets.
Planning is underway to design a new system that captures more stormwater above ground with Green Infrastructure and new development projects capturing their property stormwater onsite, to prevent stormwater from entering the JC sewer system, thereby capping the number and volume of CSO overflows.
SJC Resource doc on CSO’s & Green Infrastructure Opportunities for JC here.
Business Case For More Green Infrastructure Letter To JC MUA From START Working Group - Aug 2019
Jersey City Open Sewer Atlas (JC OSA) here
NJ Developers Guide To Green Infrastructure, version 2.0
Updated JC Stormwater Management Ordinance + Flood Zone Overlay - 2020 - 2021 Focus on Green Infrastructure
Green Infrastructure, in the form of Street Trees, Bioswales & Rain Gardens, Porous Pavement and Green Roofs / Walls will be an integral part of that plan by keeping stormwater out of the sewers in the first place.
Street Trees
WE CAN’T MANAGE WHAT WE DON’T MEASURE !
LET’S HELP OUR NEW JC FORESTER BY COMPLETING THE HISTORIC JC MAPPING CENSUS !
WE NEED MORE CITIZENS TO JOIN US IN MAPPING JC STREET TREES ACROSS THE CITY !
To Join the 2021 SJC Tree Mapping Census Action Team Please Complete This Form !
GETTING STARTED WITH OpenTreeMap - HELPFUL TIPS HERE !
Helpful Tree Species ID Guide - recommended by the NJ Tree Foundation, download free pdf from Rutgers here - Trees of NJ and the Mid-Atlantic States + How To Use This Guidebook!
NJ Tree Foundation Tree Species ID & Tree Hazards
Download Citizen Science + Tree Mapping Training Brochure - includes Tree Species ID Tips !
Scope of the Problem
Look no further than the 2015 JCEC Sponsored Tree Canopy Study (satellite study) to learn more about why Street Trees are so important - according to that study back then, only 17% of the city was eco-serviced by trees! For cities our size, and in our geography, recommended tree canopy coverage is 44%. We are extremely deficient in our current tree inventory. with the new estimated JC Tree Canopy cover at only 10.9% (Aug 2020)
This 17% statistic does not reflect a walkabout assessment by JC Parks & Forestry completed during that period which determined that 20% of the Trees in City Parks were dead or dying. What that means, is that 17% statistic is really 13.6%. (It is a credible idea, that the dead or dieing trees statistic in Parks is not limited to just Parks, but applies across the City to Street Trees as well)
Breaking News >>> 2015 - 2020 JC i-Tree Canopy Report Shows JC Tree Canopy Now at 10.9% - SJC Commissioned Report by UVM SAL If we deduct the 20% estimate of dead or dying Trees in JC Parks from Parks & Forestry assessment of JC Parks back in 2015, then the 10.9% really becomes 8.7%
WE NEED TO PLANT MORE TREES Let's get going, and remember . . . . . BETTER TOGETHER Jersey City 👍
In order to VERIFY the 2015 SATELLITE Study, with an accurate Tree Inventory that would geolocate and map the existing trees and record species id, dimensions, their health status, etc., SJC partnered with Azevea in 2016 to create a JC OpenTreeMap (JC OTM), an open source mapping app used by major cities across the country, and began hosting Tree Mapping Meetups in 2015 to pilot the use of the tool and engage the community in a Citizen Science data collection effort for the City. Teams of volunteers took to the streets to map existing Trees and get a better idea of where more Trees need to be planted in the city (we mapped empty Tree Pits !).
This was a very successful pilot and we learned A Lot - we mapped over 3600 Trees & Empty Tree Pits thru the Fall of 2019 and then developed a report recommending we launch a City Sponsored full scale Tree Mapping Census Campaign, Training Citizen Scientists as Tree Ambassadors to crowdsource Tree Inventory Data.
Society Hill - A Cautionary Tale
Society Hill Walkway Shelterbelt of 84 Mature Trees WATCH THIS VIDEO
In 2018 we continued to support protection of the Society Hill Shelterbelt of 84 Mature Trees on the Hackensack River Public Walkway - the Friends of the Walkway community group had been battling the DPWA association board there for 10 Years and while the City of Jersey City had offered some directives, the City recently issued a single approval permit, without an independent assessment, to remove all 84 of those beautiful, healthy trees(a handful of these may have needed to be replaced due to their unstable condition). Previous directives from the City and guidance by independent Tree advocacy orgs were to repair the walkway by lifting the large concrete slabs, replace those with small pavers around the base of the Trees, and shave Tree roots where needed. No enforcement too place and City did not want to be bothered with oversight of doing the correct actions that were needed to save these Trees. Citizens can get still get involved to express their outrage - you can read the full story about what happened here.
Care For Our Existing Tree Canopy
And finally, it's not only about just planting more trees, but protecting and maintaining the trees we do have. Chopping off Tree Canopies continue in JC both by PSE&G and DPW / Parks & Forestry - why do we allow this? Also, to help our existing Trees thrive more stewardship is needed. Compacted Tree Pits prevent Trees from absorbing as much stormwater as they might otherwise and we recommend a combination of compost and mulch to break up the compacted soil and re-invigorate the Trees’ health.
Good stewardship begins at the beginning. In 2016 SJC and the NJ Tree Foundation co-hosted a Treekeepers Workshop (supported by Dickinson Highschool, JC DPW / Parks & Forestry and the JC Parks Coalition) teaching us the importance of planting "the right tree, in the right place, in the right way." More information on Tree Stewardship courtesy of NJ Tree Foundation can be found here.
In order to provide residents of Jersey City with Better Air Quality (JC is tied with Newark with highest rates of childhood asthma in NJ), Proactive Stormwater Management Practices That Reduce Flooding & Protect Surrounding Waterways By Filtering Out Pollutants, and very importantly Reducing the Heat Island Effect & Lowering Utility Costs (see Heat Island Effect) in our urban community. Other climate change resiliency opportunities include greater biodiversity habitat and a variety of increased quality of life benefits for residents.
#TreeSpeech is a perfect example of an SJC +ART collaborative project. This successful project raised awareness about Jersey City’s need for more trees and our JC OpenTreeMap initiatives in a clever social media campaign. Thank you Anne Percoco ! Brilliant community awareness and stewardship initiative, can't wait to get started on #TREESPEECH again this 2019 season :-) For more information on #TreeSpeech click here.
Rain Gardens & Bioswales
SJC's Rain Gardens +ART Campaign is an environmental remediation + educational outreach initiative. Rain gardens synthesize a stormwater capture and beautification strategy within a natural irrigation system for community gardens. This was demonstrated perfectly by the Washington Park Permaculture Learning Garden installation . By Rutgers' standards, 250,000 gallons of stormwater are diverted from Jersey City's sewer system each year as a result of this initiative!
Rain Gardens SJC has Installed in Partnership With NJ Tree Foundation:
NJCU Campus Rain Garden funded by JC MUA - Fall 2017: partner NJTF
Special thanks to the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority for funding this installation !
Partners on this initiative include ioby.org for crowdfunding and the NJ Tree Foundation for design / install.
We Need A CITY-WIDE Rain Garden Campaign - Medium sized cities like ours have targeted 10,000 Rain Gardens for their campaigns; we think 11,000 is a good number for Jersey City!
Permaculture solutions and Green Infrastructure go hand in hand - SJC's Rain Garden +ART Campaign is modeled after this philosophy.
Further, the City of Jersey City received a Sustainable Jersey Award for this innovative demonstration project during their 2011 certification process, which was spearheaded by a citizen led initative through the Washington Park Association (WPA). SJC's Rain Gardens +ART initiative, launched in 2011, is a citizens response initiative to the recent US EPA Consent Decree leveraged on Jersey City for violations of the Federal Clean Water Act - it is modelled after the successful WPA project, which included members of SJC’s founding leadership.
SJC Green Infrastructure (GI) Advocacy Activities
These are the 2011 JCEC Recommendations for Municipal Action for Stormwater Management, yet to be implemented. Nor are the 2011 JC Sustainable Land Use Resolution commitments being adhered to..
SJC applauds the new NJ DEP Stormwater Management Ruling to prioritize Green Infrastructure, including mandate for Developers to prioritize Green Infrastructure in their projects pushing out on the best practices NJF Developers Guide For Green Instructure.
Also, Jersey City has amended its Stormwater Management Ordinance to align with NJ DEP Stormwater Management Rules, going further with GI guidelines for development / redevelopment for even smaller footprint properties located in designated Flood Zones (40% of Jersey City 👍.
In partnership with their outreach campaign ‘Sewage Free Streets & Rivers’ SJC is advocating for more GI to be included as a priority in Jersey City’s Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) / JC MUA. We are looking for a higher percentage of GI in the mix of solutions and we’d like to see an implementation plan with a schedule to front load this largest capital improvements project in JC history already started, with planned GI installations aka NOW !
SJC has commented on he newly updated JC Master Plan (Land Use & Open Space Elements) asking to prioritize more GI including Tree Canopy Restoration actions for Jeresy City. The update of the JC MP has implications for sync with the JC Resiliency Plan which includes the GI Adaptation Management Plan (section
SJC has successfully advocated to prioritize MORE STREET TREES through our participation in the development of the JC Climate & Energy Action Plan approved this past Spring by City Council and this Summer by the Planning Board (priority #8 p. under Buildings Energy Sector) / City Planning.
It would be great to see more residences opt to convert lawns and hardscapes toward beautiful rain garden installations and smarter tree pit technologies.
Tell us where Flooding is happening in your neighborhood and where you think we should plant a Rain Garden / Bioswale !
>>>>> RESIDENTIAL FLOODING SURVEY HERE <<<<<
Tell us if Your School has Flooding issues and if you need Trees - SJC can help facilitate a planting project for you !
>>>>> SCHOOLS FLOODING & TREES NEEDED SURVEY HERE <<<<<
Green Roofs & Walls For Buildings
In 2017, SJC partnered with developer JMA Architects Atelier to install the First Green Wall In JC - 30' High Moss Mural Project at 54 Bright Street. The project includes a Moss Mural With Misting System. A moss mural like this one can purify the air as much as 275 trees. More photos here of this impressive first for SJC and special thanks to Amanda Levy and Joe Velez, the two artists who sourced and designed the project. This is another great example of an SJC +ART collaboration!
More Resources on Green Infrastructure can be found below and in the Resources section of this website:
SJC Overview Feb 2019 - SJC Green Infrastructure Projects & Activities - see links in this presentation to other presentations made at our Feb 5th 2019 Meetup on GI and the MUA Long Term Control Plan (LTCP)
To learn more about SJC’s 2020 - 2021 GI / Tree Mapping Census OTM Project click here.
Sewage Free NJ Sierra Club Presentation on JC MUA LTCP
Jersey City’s Plumbing Problem - SJC Fact Sheet To Help You Understand CSO’s
Sewer Free NJ Statewide Campaign - Community Stakeholders Should Join This Campaign !
Watershed & Sewershed Boundaries - Why Knowing About These Is Important !
WHY USE COMPOST IN RAIN GARDENS ?
Also on our Resources page, see the list of related Green Ordinances and policy guidelines currently in place here under the heading of City of Jersey City Green (-ish) Policies. Unfortunately, there are many gaps and / or these are not being enforced and / or they are not being orchestrated in concert - this causes confusion and we do not achieve needed change in making JC a more sustainable place to live and work.
