It takes a Sugar Maple about 40 years to reach full size and 30 years for an Oak Tree. Yet builders, PSEG, and Glen Rock residents are taking down healthy and mature trees at an alarming rate.

Please sign this petition, asking GR Shade Tree Advisory Committee, the GR Planning Board, and the Boro Council to strengthen our ordinances and create new ones where needed.

• Regarding developers and residents: If one mature tree is taken down, it's not enough to replace it with one young tree. Ask scientists what the true replacement value looks like.
• Eliminate the loophole for developers that allows them to take down trees (if within a certain distance of the construction) without replacing any trees.
• Allow the Shade Tree Committee or another in-town authority to evaluate the need for a tree to come down via a permitting process.
• Fight back when it comes to PSEG taking down trees without having to replace them. Ask our local elected official on the county and state level to join in this fight if needed.
  
  

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More on The Benefits of Trees (source https://canopy.org/tree-info/benefits-of-trees/)

Public Health and Social Benefits
Clean air: Trees produce oxygen, intercept airborne particulates, and reduce smog, enhancing a community’s respiratory health. The urban canopy directly contributes to meeting a city’s regulatory clean air requirements.

Access to trees, green spaces, and parks promotes greater physical activity, and reduces stress, while improving the quality of life in our cities and towns.

Urban landscaping, including trees, helps lower crime rates.
Studies show that urban vegetation slows heartbeats, lowers blood pressure, and relaxes brain wave patterns.

Girls with a view of nature and trees at home score higher on tests of self-discipline.

Environmental Benefits
Climate change: Trees sequester carbon (CO2), reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Read more about trees and climate change here.

Energy conservation:
A tree is a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single tree can produce the cooling effect of ten room-size, residential air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.
Acting as a natural air-conditioner, Palo Alto’s lush canopy ensures that summer temperatures are at least 6 to 8 degrees lower than in comparable neighborhoods without trees.
Tree windbreaks can reduce residential heating costs 10-15%; while shading and evaporative cooling from trees can cut residential air-conditioning costs 20-50%.
Water filtration and retention: Urban forests promote beneficial water quality and reduce storm water management costs.

Palo Alto street and park trees can intercept 135 million gallons of rainwater. Trees capture and slow rainfall and their roots filter water and recharge the aquifer. Trees reduce storm water runoff, which reduces flooding, saves city storm water management costs, decreases the flow of polluted water into the Bay, and protects the banks of the San Francisquito Creek.
Wildlife habitat: Trees provide important habitats for numerous bird, insect and animal species.

Economic Benefits
Communities and business districts with healthy tree-cover attract new residents, industry, and commercial activity.

Homes landscaped with trees sell more quickly and are worth 5% to 15% more than homes without trees.
Where the entire street is tree-lined, homes may be worth 25% more.
Trees enhance economic stability by attracting businesses; people linger and shop longer when trees are present.
Where a canopy of trees exists, apartments and offices rent more quickly and have a higher occupancy rate; workers report more productivity and less absenteeism.

Sources:
https://gardentabs.com/how-fast-sugar-maple-grows
https://treejourney.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-grow-an-oak-tree-full-timeline
https://canopy.org/tree-info/benefits-of-trees/