SJC’s Trees & Trash Action Campaign (TTAC)
Environmental Stewardship For Jersey City - Help Restore Our Tree Canopy !
Join Our Campaign In your Neighborhood
NEW event series for 2023 celebrating Jersey City’s Year Of Open Space !
More about the campaign (click here) . .
The Trees & Trash Action Campaign is an environmental stewardship initiative intended to get people mobilized in neighborhoods to care for existing Trees better and to attend to all the Trash, including Catch Basins to prevent flooding.
As a part of this campaign, we'll be helping our Trees thrive by visiting planting sites in the city and adding healthy soil amendments after we clear debris from the planting site and surrounding sidewalks and streets!
SJC has partnered with Clean Green Jersey for this campaign.
Supported by the City of Jersey City 👍
Volunteer Registry Sign Up For Events Below !
Add your name to the Volunteer Registery here if you want to work with SJC to restore the Jersey City Tree Canopy - you don’t need to live in these neighborhoods to participate. Training and supplies will be provided 👍
Neighborhood Map
If you're unsure which neighborhood you reside in, enter your address in SJC's neighborhood map to find out: https://bit.ly/3eDDIiM
SJC’s Trees & Trash Action Campaign Impact Report 2022
PAST EVENTS - Thanks all who volunteered!
2023 Events
Triangle Park Vicinity - Saturday May 20th, 10am - 3pm
Arlington Park Vicinity - Saturday June 3rd, 10am - 3pm
Fall 2023 Event Date & Location TBA !
Join us in this JC Tree Canopy restoration campaign to make Jersey City a cleaner, and greener place to live and work!
Our 2022 events were a great success and we are trying to build on that momentum! Some of the locations for those events are listed below, with the last event of the season Sept 2022 in the Jrnl Sq vicinity shown to the right . . .. your neighborhood could be next! 2022 TTAC Report here.
· Downtown nearby Hamilton Park - Saturday May 7th 10am - neighborhood map for the event here
· Greenville nearby Columbia Park - Saturday May 14th 10am - neighborhood map for the event here
· The Heights nearby Pershing Field Park - Saturday May 21st 10am - neighborhood map for the event here
SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE HEIGHTS ! Please read SJC’s Petition for the Central Avenue Business District and Add Your Name to the List of Signatures Concerned about the Trees & Streetscape Redevelopment Project for Central Avenue !
Building on Our Tree Mapping Campaign . . .
“We Can’t Manage What We Don’t Measure !”
Quick Tree Care Guides For Residents And Business Districts
PRINT & SHARE WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS & FAVORITE BUSINESSES !
READY TO PRINT RESIDENT TREE CARE FLYER HERE READY TO PRINT BUSINESS TREE CARE FLYER HERE
THESE ARE 1 PAGE / 2-SIDED FLYERS, PLEASE SHARE !
Quick Trash 101 / Recycling & Adopt A Catch Basin Guide For Residents And Business Districts
QUICK CLICK LEARNING BELOW !
Did You Know That Enhancing Tree Planting Sites With Compost & Mulch Helps Our Trees Thrive ?
Did You Know About JC’s Adopt A Catch Basin Program & How Cleaning Up This Debris Helps Prevent Flooding ?
what Is Going On?
JC’s Tree Canopy has deteriorated another 6+% over the last 5 years, now down to 10.9%, an endangered level
2015 JCEC Tree Canopy Study - None Of The Recommendations Have Been Implemented
NEW 2021 Davey Expert Tree Company Urban Forestry Management Report - No Plan To Implement This Roadmap
3 Steps Needed To Restore JC’s Tree Canopy - Measure Trees, Maintain Trees, More Trees !
✨✨✨Stay Tuned For More Information About
SJC’s Green Corridors Program For Targeted Tree Planting,
In Partnership With JC Parks & Forestry Department ✨✨✨
We Can’t Manage What We Don’t Measure ! is the name of the Tree Mapping Census Campaign we spearheaded with Citizen Science Volunteers. Our aim was to provide Tree Inventory data for City officials to better manage, protect and restore JC’s Tree Canopy. The City has since started a Tree Inventory of their own, which may or may not be completed !
Two Reasons Why the JC Tree Canopy Matters - 1) Jersey City and the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) - February 2021 , 2) Flood Mitigation - BIG issue in JC !
Learn more about SJC’s Heat Watch & Air Quality Campaign below -
SJC Campaigns In The News!
NOAA NIHHIS Cohort Collaboration For National Heat Watch Campaign - Jersey City, Elizabeth, Newark !
Visit SJC’s Heat Watch & Air Quality Campaign website page to learn more here.
More about Green Infrastructure For Jersey City HERE !
***Below is SJC’s Jersey City Street Trees Interactive Dashboard. CLICK HERE for an enlarged version with tree inventory details for all wards, neighborhoods, parks, and special improvement districts!
Originally developed by Azavea, SJC piloted a version of their open-source tool from 2016-2018 and now we have launched our own SJC OTM platform, partnering with iNaturalist to help our Citizen Scientist Tree Mappers with Tree Species ID. After a very successful first season kick-off of a Historic JC Tree Mapping Census On Earth Day 2020, Season 2 is already underway with a Winter Education Series for our Tree Mappers.
Learning Resources
Jersey City Tree Ordinance, Forestry Standards + FOCUS ON TREE CARE - 3 GREAT RESOURCES !
Jersey City Tree Ordinance - updated Oct 2024
USDA FOREST SERVICE - TREE OWNERS MANUAL FOR THE NORTHEASTERN U.S.
NJ TREE FOUNDATION - CAMDEN PROJECT / WE SHOULD DO THIS IN JC !
COMING IN 2022 - SJC HAS BEEN GRANTED TO UPDATE THE 2015 JCEC CANOPY STUDY, STAY TUNED !
Learn why a Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) Assessment for Jersey City is important - SJC will be doing this with the University of Vermont Spatial Analytics Lab (UVM SAL) in 2022 ! Watch video below:
Learn more about Trees in your neighborhood by tuning in to the resources below:
Download the new SJC OpenTreeMap (OTM) Tip Sheet here.
Resources for Tree Mappers to get started with Tree Species Identification - remember that part of the fun of being a Citizen Scientist Tree Mapper is learning to identify the different Tree species in Jersey City 😎
Trees of NJ and the Mid-Atlantic States Guidebook pdf download, recommended by the NJ Tree Foundation + How To Use This Guidebook ! (print and take with you when you go Tree Mapping - letter size pages)
REQUIRED: Self-directed ELLA Webinar - Tree Species ID by Their Leaves with Companion Pocket Guide TREE FINDER available on Amazon for only $5.95 (recommended by our Neighborhood Captains 👍 !)
Neighborhood Captain Chris Lamm JC Common Trees List !
Learn more about how to measure large Trees -
Upcoming 2023 Winter Tree Education Series Starting Monday Eve January 16th @ 7pm . . . RegisterFor all 4 Webinars Here ✨
Sustainable Jersey City is happy to present our 2023 Winter Tree Education Series - come learn how to care for the Trees in your neighborhood! We will be holding the following webinars via Zoom with these wonderful Tree Experts:
Sam Bishop / Trees NY - Best Practices To Help Achieve Community Forestry Goals, Monday January 16th 7pm; in case you missed this webinar, here is the recording.
Healthy trees deliver the highest level of benefits at the lowest level of maintenance costs. Healthy urban forests don’t just happen; they require care and planning to thrive. Good planning can address current problems, avoid future problems, and build community support for urban forestry programs. Join SJC and Sam Bishop, Arborist for Trees New York, as we discuss developing best practices to help achieve community urban forestry goals. We will also discuss Urban Forestry Master Plans and Urban Forestry Management Plans, the differences between them, and how they can help define and incorporate best practices.
Kieran Hunt / NJ Forestry Association- Developmental Pruning of Young Trees, Mon January 30th 7pm; in case you missed this webinar, here is the recording.
Urban trees require maintenance to achieve their potential in the landscape, and that maintenance should start with developmental pruning while trees are young. Once young trees are established post-planting, they should be pruned on a regular basis to mitigate and eliminate structural defects, guide branch architecture to accommodate hardscape and access conflicts, and develop good scaffold limb architecture with a main leader. This talk will outline this process, with steps that start with pruning that can be accomplished from the ground with volunteers, up to pruning that will require professional arborists to perform to achieve optimal mature crown structure.
Heather Sporn / SJC Board Member & Urban Designer - Successful Municipal Streetscape Projects for Sustainable Communities, Mon February 6th and Mon February 20th- in case you missed the first webinar for this topic on Feb 6th, here is the recording link. And if you missed the Feb 20th webinar, here is the recording link.
These two sessions will include perspectives on Green Infrastructure, proper Street Tree selection / planting and many other elements that can improve quality of life on public streets and in our green spaces. Sharing some case studies, we will explore the interrelationships among public safety, street elements, open space, and planting that can make our communities more livable. This will be an active participatory session where you can contribute your thoughts and ideas, as we explore the role of a meaningful, iterative, responsive, and transparent stakeholder feedback process to formulate design solutions in the public realm. Discussion will include transportation and business district projects, and a variety of open space and greenspace projects, including parks.
2022 Winter Education Series For Jersey City Tree People - webinar recordings below -
Sam Bishop - Environmental Benefits of Urban Trees / Winter and Spring Tree Care Tuesday February 1st 7pm - webinar recording here
Kieran Hunt / NJ Forestry Association- Developmental Pruning of Young Trees Tuesday February 15th 7pm - webinar recording here
Sam Bishop - Planting Your Tree Bed Tuesday March 1st 7pm - webinar recording here
2021 Winter Education Series For Tree Mappers - 7 Webinars Recorded
Dec 17th NJ Forestry Association with Kieran Hunt / Backyard Forestry Series - Winter Tree Species ID Part 1
Jan 21st NJ Forestry Associaiton with Kieran Hunt / Backyard Forestry Series - Winter Tree Species ID Part 2
Jan 25th Trees NY with Sam Bishop - Learn How To Be An Urban Tree Steward
Jan 25th Native Plant Society with Joe Alverez - Winter Botany 101
Feb 8th Trees NY with Sam Bishop - Learn to Identify Local Street Trees
Feb 18th NJ Forestry Association with Kieran Hunt / Backyard Forestry Series - Winter Tree Species ID Part 3
Feb 22nd The NYC Parks Stewardship Team - Learn to Protect Urban Trees
BONUS CHECKLIST - New Jersey Tree Foundation (NJTF) Tree Stewardship Best Practices !