Port Jervis Gets $1 Million for Trees
A USDA grant will bring about 600 trees to the city.
A $1 million grant for trees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is “on the verge of execution” in Port Jervis, said Valerie Maginsky, executive director of Port Jervis Community Development Agency, who pursued the grant.
“The program grew beyond expectations,” she said, so the Sustainable Forestry Initiative will oversee the grant for the USDA. Within three months she expects the grant project to move forward, beginning with hiring urban forestry experts to guide tree planting and maintenance and also educate property owners about the value of planting trees. Trees enhance property value and urban charm as well as reduce building cooling costs and improve air quality.
Maginsky noted the increasing challenge of the “urban heat island.” As summers become increasingly warmer, the heat is exacerbated by walls, sidewalks, parking lots and roads that absorb and emit heat and form canyons where heat settles and lingers. Trees alleviate heat both with shade and moisture.
The USDA grant will pay for about 600 trees, Maginsky said. Some will have to be planted on private property, as the right of way strip between curbs and sidewalks will not accommodate all new trees.
“We won’t get a tree canopy without planting trees on private property,” she said, noting that the temperature is 7-10 degrees cooler under trees.
Target neighborhoods include the West End, Tri-States and East and West Main Streets to the Delaware River. Planting will begin in the spring, involving forestry experts, the Port Jervis Department of Public Works and Port Jervis Tree Commission. Planting will be preceded by “a lot of public outreach,” Maginsky said.
The Port Jervis Tree Commission, initiated and led by Jim Blanton, has been working on planting trees around the city for close to a decade, aiming initially for 100 and ultimately planting over 150, he said.
He recalled planting evergreens in planters along Jersey Avenue.
“The first two years vandals pulled up trees or pulled off branches. But it was just a new thing for some kids. Now it rarely happens,” he said.
Blanton recalled a section along Jersey Avenue where they planted evergreens in planter pots, but vandalism kept recurring.
“We replanted one little tree seven or eight times. Eventually the vandal gave up,” said Blanton.
Leaf blowers and lawn mowers were also a problem for a while, but Blanton and his cohorts found that surrounding young trees’ trunks with plastic corrugated drain pipes cut to size sufficiently protected the trees.
“We could cut them off when they got to a certain size,” he said. “It’s a matter of education. People may say, ‘Put trees in a forest.’ You can educate people about why they’re worthwhile.”
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