To the Editor:

Princeton suffered a dramatic loss of trees due to the recent winter storms, but we are fortunate that we live in a town that is dedicated to preserving its tree canopy. As a contribution to the effort to restore our community’s trees, the Princeton Shade Tree Commission (STC) is delighted to announce that, at Communiversity this coming weekend, it will be giving out, free of charge, 750 seedlings provided by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Forest Service.

At its booth (#99B), the STC will have three species of evergreens and five species of deciduous trees, including oaks, maples, and dogwoods. And this year, each person is permitted to take home four trees!

The STC will also be offering visitors something just as important: an illustrated handout showing the proper and improper way to mulch their new seedlings, as well as their established trees. Now that tree planting and landscaping are beginning again in earnest, people who care about tree survival are becoming concerned about the proliferation of “mulch volcanoes” in yards all over the community.

The STC reminds residents and landscapers that piling mulch up around a tree trunk and enveloping the root flare traps moisture and prevents water from reaching the roots, causing decay and damage. Fine rootlets issue from the trunk in response to being smothered by mulch and can dry out and die or girdle the trunk, further stressing the tree. Volcanoes can also attract destructive insects, rodents, and fungus, thereby ensuring that young (and even older) trees will not thrive. And yet this practice is ubiquitous. When questioned about this habitual way of mulching trees, many landscapers reply that they are only doing what the homeowner wants.

Residents who are informed about proper and improper mulching are better able to persuade their landscapers not to engage in this harmful practice and to resist doing it themselves.

More information about mulch volcanoes, including the proper way to mulch your trees, can be found at the STC website, www.princetonshadetree.org. And for guidance in planting your new Communiversity seedlings, visit the NJ Forest Service’s website, www.forestnursery.org.

Janet Stern

Monroe Lane, Member,

Princeton Shade Tree Commission