Baker will not rest on laurels, continues work to fortify Glen Ridge’s tree canopy

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — Although never formally accepting a 2021 award from a collection of New Jersey forestry services for her effort over the years, Glen Ridge Shade Tree Commission President Elizabeth Baker is no shrinking violet when it comes to extolling the beautiful necessity of an arboreal canopy in the borough. 

A former councilwoman, Baker said in a Feb. 18 interview at the municipal building that she was “the main mover and shaker behind reestablishing a shade tree commission.” 

The commission was originally established in 1912, she said, with the intent to plant pin oaks along an unpaved Ridgewood Road between Bay and Watchung avenues. 

“We dodged a bullet with that,” she said. “Most towns would have planted elms.” 

Baker’s relief was based on knowledge of Dutch elm disease, which is caused by a fungal pathogen and has obliterated the native American elm. It was first discovered in this country in the late 1920s, shortly after the commission was established. A disease-resistant elm has since been developed. 

But with the planting of pin oaks on Ridgewood Avenue, the commission succeeded in increasing the town’s tree canopy. Nevertheless, it was disbanded in 1941. A shade tree division in the Glen Ridge Department of Public Works continued the work, but sometime in the 1960s, this division was eliminated. At the time, Baker said, the DPW did not realize a problem.

“The problem was that, when a tree died, they’d plant a maple,” she said. “Maples have shallow roots and they’re no longer appropriate for our climate. They need a long, cold winter. Starting in the late ’80s, we began to lose 50 to 80 maples a year on public land, and we still are losing them.”

Baker explained that maples’ shallow roots develop small root fibers. In wet soil, these fibrous roots draw in pollutants with which the tree cannot cope. Road salt is the major culprit. With Councilwoman Baker’s advocacy, the council reestablished the shade tree commission in February 2010.

“I encouraged them to plant more trees, but no more maples,” she said. “I recommended oaks, yellowwoods, London plane trees and black gums.”

During that first year of the reestablished commission, the borough planted 1,200 trees. But the tree population increased by only 300 because other trees were being lost. A tree census, last taken three years ago, counted 3,200 public trees.

“We had an increase of only six this year,” Baker said. “It’s crazy. But our tree population is very young. We’re taking out the older ones, mostly maples, because they’re dying.”

The oldest borough tree, she said, is on private property at 150 Ridgewood Ave. It is a ginkgo.

“I’ve measured it,” she said. “For an estimate, I’d say it goes back to 1814. Ginkgos grow very slowly. This one is massive.”

The circumference was measured at breast height, she said; the diameter was determined and a formula used to figure its age. This particular tree had a 54-inch circumference.

“Thank God it’s a male tree,” Baker said. “Female ginkgos produce seeds that smell like rotten eggs. If it was a female tree, we’d all have to move out of town. All ginkgo trees in Glen Ridge are male.”

But she did allow, with a chuckle, that male ginkgos might like the smell.

The borough, she continued, can have large, public trees because, in 1912, as well as providing for a shade tree commission, the council prohibited streets from being electrified. And trees provide important benefits, she extolled.

“They absorb carbon and give off oxygen,” Baker said. “The carbon is sequestered in the roots. Trees provide shade and act as windbreakers. They are vital to our property value. Everyone relates to trees.”

The challenge the commission is currently facing, according to Baker, is maintaining the borough canopy on Essex County thoroughfares, and foremost is Ridgewood Avenue.

“We got 50 trees from the county,” she said. “We need 50 more, but they promised us 21. The 50 we got came around Thanksgiving. Fifty more are needed this spring. The commission has chosen London plane trees. We’re going to stick to oak, American elm and London plane trees. It’s very exciting.”

Baker did not accept the shade tree award for herself, she said, because the Glen Ridge Shade Tree Commission work has been a team effort, which includes work from the borough council. After posing for a photograph while holding the award, she returned it to a display in the office of the mayor.

  FEATURED, Glen Ridge Shade Tree Commission