A tree grows in Morristown

HAPPY ARBOR DAY: From left: Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz, Deb Regan of the Shade Tree Commission, Council President Stefan Armington, Shade Tree Chairwoman Kristin Ace, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, Mayor Tim Dougherty, Councilwoman Hiliari Davis, at Morristown tree planting. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
HAPPY ARBOR DAY: From left: Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz, Deb Regan of the Shade Tree Commission, Council President Stefan Armington, Shade Tree Chairwoman Kristin Ace, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, Mayor Tim Dougherty, Councilwoman Hiliari Davis, at Morristown tree planting. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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HAPPY ARBOR DAY: From left: Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz, Deb Regan of the Shade Tree Commission, Council President Stefan Armington, Shade Tree Chairwoman Kristin Ace, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, Mayor Tim Dougherty, Councilwoman Hiliari Davis, at Morristown tree planting. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
HAPPY ARBOR DAY: From left: Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz, Deb Regan of the Shade Tree Commission, Council President Stefan Armington, Shade Tree Chairwoman Kristin Ace, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, Mayor Tim Dougherty, Councilwoman Hiliari Davis, at Morristown tree planting. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

 

By Kevin Coughlin

Go ahead. Call her a tree-hugger. Make Kristin’s day.

Arbor Day.

“I’m a certifiable tree-hugger, and I’m proud of it,” said Kristin Ace, chairwoman of Morristown’s Shade Tree Commission, at Saturday’s dedication of a young sugar maple at Morristown High School.

Studies suggest correlations between a community’s wellness and the number of trees in town, Ace said. Trees provide cooling shade in summer, create precious oxygen, filter storm water before it reaches our aquifers, and provide homes for birds, bees and insects, she said.

And they spruce up a neighborhood, pardon the expression.

“Sugar maples have wonderful foliage.. it’s a wonderful thing that the Morristown Shade Tree Commission has done,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.), who knows something about the subject. An arboretum in Morris Township bears his family name.

Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz and Shade Tree Chairwoman Kristin Ace with Morristown's newest tree. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz and Shade Tree Chairwoman Kristin Ace with Morristown’s newest tree. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

The Congressman joined commission members and Mayor Tim Dougherty, Council President Stefan Armington, Councilwoman Hiliari Davis, MHS Principal Mark Manning and students from the high school on a crisp, sunny morning on the last day of April.

“I think it’s awesome,” Davis, a 1994 graduate of the high school, said of the new maple, planted by town public works employees in a school parking lot on Mills Street, facing the Alexander Hamilton Elementary School. “This will give kids some pride. It’s really cool.”

“This will be here long after we’re gone,” said the Mayor. Dougherty and the town council  created the Shade Tree Commission in 2013.

PEAR TREES AND PRIMARIES

There the volunteer panel has three vacancies. Prospective commissioners should be open-minded, with a “passion to do the right thing,” said Ace, a longtime podcaster here on MorristownGreen.com.

By next year, she hopes a vigorous planting program will have replaced all the trees that were wiped out along Morristown streets a few years ago by Tropical Storm Irene, Hurricane Sandy and a freak October snowstorm.  Some 116 tree plantings are anticipated in 2016.

The commission also is about to start discussing how to replace five ailing pear trees removed from South Street last year, Ace said.

A sugar maple was chosen for the high school because it’s a hardy native species that will “dress up the area nicely,” providing a colorful fall counterpoint to evergreens on the street, said Town Arborist Rich Wolowicz.

If only political choices were so easy.

Frelinghuysen, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Friday over cupcakes with his granddaughter, said he still has not decided who to support for president since Gov. Chris Christie bowed out.

While Donald Trump never should be underestimated, the congressman said, “he’s never been one of my favorites.”

And Ted Cruz?

“Less so,” Frelinghuysen said.

3 COMMENTS

  1. To Kristan Ace:
    Please contact me re: dead trees on Franklin Street as per our telephone conversation.
    732-822-0123

  2. Thank you Kevin for covering the STC’s beautiful event with MHS! The importance of trees in Morristown need everyones awareness and I am grateful to be part of that process!
    Kristin Ace

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