Toms River Council Asks: Where Will Town Plant 4,300 Trees?

When the New Jersey Turnpike Authority began preparing for much of the recent widening of the Garden State Parkway between Toms River and Brick, it cut down thousands of trees.

Now, Toms River will be getting more than 4,000 of those trees back.

Under New Jersey’s No Net Loss reforestation law, trees that are cut down on state land for a state project must be replaced one for one if more than a half-acre of land is affected. Because the state cannot plant the trees it cut back in the area where the Parkway was widened, Toms River is receiving a grant to plant and maintain 4,320 trees.

The grant, for $1,166,400, covers the costs of purchasing, transporting, planting and maintaining the new trees, Township Clerk Mark Mutter said in reading off the resolution at the Township Council meeting last week.

Councilman George Wittmann, who asked to table the resolution until the Sept. 22 meeting asked where the town intends to put the trees.

“Do we have a plan on where we’re going to plant these 4,000 trees?” he asked. ”It’s a significant number of trees.”

Toms River Township Planner Jay Lynch told the council there are three sites within the town where the trees are scheduled to be planted, and after some discussion, agreed to present the plans at the upcoming Land Use Committee meeting.

The number of trees is significantly more than the 200 or so that the Turnpike Authority has agreed to plant near the Evergreen Woods condominium development in Brick, which backs up to the Parkway. Residents in that community have been begging, pleading for and demanding a wall between their development and the Parkway, just north of exit 91, citing noise levels, exhaust fumes and the risk of accidents involving vehicles leaving the Parkway through that stretch.

The Turnpike Authority has turned a deaf ear, saying it would plant 200 trees instead, to the dismay of the residents. Additionally, no money is being offered to help maintain the trees or replace ones that die. Brick had sought permission to use No Net Loss funds to plant a significant barrier of trees at the site, but the state Attorney General’s office refused to allow it, saying No Net Loss funds cannot be used to plant trees on private land, Brick Mayor John Ducey has said.

Toms River officials will reconsider the resolution to seek a contract for the tree work at the Sept. 22 council meeting.