West Windsor is officially and deservedly designated an Arbor Day Foundation “Tree City” by virtue of having a Shade Tree Commission, having a formal Tree Ordinance, and is spending at least $2 per capita annually on tree planting and maintenance.
In the pre-Colonial period, the 16,800 acres of land covered by the Township were heavily forested but, with a long history as an agricultural community, a large proportion of the area was clear cut for farming. Notwithstanding more recent suburban and urban development, the Township adopted a “Green Belt” plan in 1970 that established a goal to dedicate and preserve environmentally sensitive connected areas along stream corridors to create a sustainable habitat for native flora and fauna alongside human development.
As the result of additional preservation of open space, parkland and the mandatory requirement of appropriate landscaping within developed lands, it is estimated that the summer foliage of trees in West Windsor currently creates a canopy that covers 37 percent of the Township’s surface area — excluding lakes and ponds.
The West Windsor Shade Tree Commission recently set a goal for the Township to achieve a Community Forest Canopy of 41 percent — a modest but realistic increase over the coming decade — to be achieved through continued emphasis on the set aside of land as Green Belt, (e.g. Duck Pond Run off Meadow Road); re-forestation of former farmland acquired as open space, (e.g. a portion of the JCC property on Clarksville Road, the purchase of which was approved by Council on November 22); and the continued permit requirement of landscaping with trees on at least 25 percent of future suburban development of former farmland, (as demonstrated within the Village Grande and the nearby Elements, and with anticipated development of the currently open Cyanamid tract).
Ronald Slinn
Vice-Chair, West Windsor Shade Tree Commission
