We here at Gracie & Harrigan are eager to assist our clients with the preparation and certification of their Farmland Assessment applications. The deadline for filing for Farmland Assessment is August 1, 2024. There is no extension available for this deadline.
Please know that most municipalities mail out blank applications on or about June 1 to your address of record. If you do not receive your blank forms from the town, let us know as we keep plenty of blank applications handy.
Also, please remember that we moved in early 2021! We are now located in Gladstone, at the Conover Corners building directly across the street from The Stable, and also across the street from the main branch of the Peapack-Gladstone Bank.
Our instructions to our clients can be read by clicking here. Our Activity Summary sheet, for helping you organize your information ahead of meeting with us or mailing in your forms, can be viewed by clicking here. For our calendar showing available office hours, click here. Lastly, directions can be found by clicking here.
We look forward to assisting you! Just don't wait until the last minute.
-Heather, Chrissy, Steve, Alex, and Lacey
Beech leaf disease was first found in Ohio in 2012. It is in the Mid-Atlantic and New England, and is moving to the Midwest. Of the twenty-one counties within New Jersey, it is currently found in twelve counties (Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Sussex, Essex, Union, Somerset, Monmouth, Burlington, Mercer, Warren, and Hunterdon). Beech leaf Disease is caused by an invasive nematode (Litylenchus crenatae mccannii), found in the buds and leaves of the trees, which is its food source. It is thought that the nematode carries a fungus known as a pathogen, contributing to what causes the disease. Beech leaf disease affects all European, American beeches, and any cultivars thereof.
In the first year, the trees can be asymptomatic; in the following years, they will have dark bands between the leaves' veins that are easily seen. Other symptoms are a thinning canopy, dead buds, and leaves curling. The symptoms are usually seen in the tree's lower canopy and then progressively moves up in the tree’s canopy. Death comes fast to young trees and is fatal to saplings, and the death rate increases with the number of nematodes present. The beech leaf disease will compound the issues in areas where beech bark disease is found. While there is no management currently for forests, management for yard trees can last for five years, treating the trees twice a year with a phosphite product some examples are Agri-Fos, Fosphite, Fungi-Phite, Lexx-a-phos and Polyphosphite 30 which is a fertilizer. For information on you can go to the following webpage: Beech leaf disease treatment (uri.edu)
Another pest that is not yet here, but on its way is Elm Zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda Takeuchi (Hymenoptera: Argidae)). This insect's place of origin is in East Asia. Its larva is responsible for the defoliation of Ulmus spp., and the elm trees generally recover unless there are multiple years of defoliation. They were first sighted in Canada in 2020 and have since been found in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
Other things to keep an eye out for: Bacterial Leaf Scorch, Oak wilt, Southern Pine Beetle, and Eastern Pine Looper.
Date: Thursday June 6th, 2024 (Rain or Shine)
Time: 8:30a.m. – 3:30p.m. (Registration & breakfast – 8:30-9:15 AM) – PLEASE TRY TO BE PROMPT
Place: Rosedale Park at 424 Federal City Road, Pennington, NJ 08534
Cost: $30 per adult (kids under 18 free) – Healthy continental breakfast and lunch included.
Registration Deadline: Thursday May 30th, 2024. If you have any questions, please contact Dennis Galway at 908-696-9133
Who: Organized by NJ Tree Farm Program
What: (provided by NJ Tree Farm Program)
Yet another outstanding Tree Farm Day is planned for you all at Rosedale Park. Rosedale Park (part of Mercer Meadows -- and within the Mercer County Park system) has lots of habitat types our resource specialists can provide great information about and to help you understand how everything is interconnected. We will be able to see management of riparian forest restoration, non-native plants, prescribed burn areas, management for game and non-game wildlife species, including some threatened and endangered species. We'll also have limited-capacity tours with plenty of choices amongst many topics of interest.
Why: Come share with us in celebrating the forests and learning more about them, renewing relationships and making new ones, and congratulating your peers for their outstanding achievements in forest resource management.
You can register directly by clicking here, or for further information, please contact Dennis Galway, Chair at 908-696-9133 or dgalwaydsl@verizon.net. We hope to see you there!
Recently, there has been a flurry of activity in local governments to establish or update their municipal tree cutting ordinances. This is a result of a November 2022 decision by NJDEP to require municipalities to have such ordinances in order to meet the requirements of their stormwater/storm sewer permits. NJDEP then published a model ordinance for local governments to consider.
The current action is targeted towards development and other land use change. Therefore, forestry -- as practiced under a plan approved by DEP Forest Service -- is exempted under the model ordinance, as are take-downs of hazard trees. However, please be aware that municipalities can alter the model ordinance during their local deliberations. Foresters have long recognized the importance of forests (including urban & community forests) for water yield, water quality, and the reduction of peak stormwater flows. If you want Gracie & Harrigan to review your municipality's tree cutting and replacement ordinance with you, please let us know.
Recently, Gracie & Harrigan had the good fortune to hire Jacquelyn Johnston as our newest Associate Forester. Jackie is a recent graduate of the forestry program at Rutgers University, where her studies included both rural forestry and urban & community forestry. While at Rutgers, she worked on various projects tracking movements of plant species, tree inventories, and silviculture projects, ultimately being awarded the E.B. Moore Forestry Award by her department. Immediately prior to being hired in her present position, Jackie worked for Gracie & Harrigan in a seasonal capacity, co-leading field operations on a major hazard tree inventory.
A resident of Somerset County, Jackie has a certification in wetland delineation and currently serves on the board of the International Society of Arboriculture -- New Jersey Chapter. Her interests are gardening, plant propagation, food systems, hiking, foraging, beekeeping, and road trips to nurseries and farm stands. So please help us welcome Jackie to the Gracie & Harrigan crew this summer as she assists with Farmland Assessment applications, as well as necessary fieldwork!
Forest stand improvement is a very common recommendation under forest management plans that we write, but what is its ecological basis? Forest stand improvement thinnings can take many forms. Most commonly they are either thinning from below or crop tree management.
By thinning from below foresters are seeking to mimic low- to moderate-intensity wildfires. Such wildfires were common hundreds of years ago and helped shape the forest that we know today. By favoring thick-barked species such as oaks and pine, such fires helped develop native wildlife and plant communities and were an important ecological process. Of course your insurance company would likely not be happy if you started flicking matches into the forest. By cutting thin-barked species, especially those with smaller diameters, we can get the same outcome using a slightly different process.
Crop tree management is slightly different in that we specifically identify high-quality and or high wildlife value trees that we wish to retain on the property. Next we identify lower-value trees (either economic value or ecological value) that are competing with the trees designated to remain. Some of those trees that are directly competing with residual trees are designated to be cut.
Both systems are designed to increase the health and vitality of the residual forest as well as the individual trees designated to remain. Since many of the residual trees are oaks and other thick-barked species, these methods correspond well to the outcomes of light- and medium-intensity wildfires. When such thinning is combined with competing understory vegetation control, we also have the added benefit of improving groundcover quality and improving the chances for developing new seedlings and saplings that should become the next generation of trees as the older trees die off.
As once-far-away disease problems become resident in northern and central New Jersey -- such as emerald ash borer and bacterial leaf scorch -- we are further reminded that our forests are dynamic, disturbance-dependent ecosystems. They will change whether we like it or not. By following the ecological processes that developed these forests in the first place we have our best chance for keeping them healthy in the long term.
Planting and protecting trees is important for so many reasons: sequestration of carbon dioxide, filtering pollutants, aesthetics, biodiversity, and improvement of air quality to name a few. With the decline of trees within the forests starting with ash trees due to the emerald ash borer, where some are seeing up to a 90% loss of canopy cover in riparian areas (lands in or near wetlands, streams, and floodplains). Beech leaf disease is not helping the situation. With globalization, there will always be a new pest and disease on the horizon and the only way to combat that is to keep planting and protecting trees, and making sure you have diversity within your forest or homesite instead of a monoculture. This will make your forest more resilient to future pests and disease.
Forested riparian areas help with the reduction of pollution that enters our waterways. The trees, shrubs, and other native herbaceous plants filter out the excess nutrients from runoff, from homes, roads, and farms. Another important reason to keep riparian areas forested is trees also help to reduce erosion and from excess sediment from entering the water ways that potentially smothers the good invertebrates within the stream. Trees and herbaceous plants can also help fight erosion. So, if you are experiencing this on your property, contact us and we can help with the issue.
We here at Gracie & Harrigan are eager to assist our clients with the preparation and certification of their Farmland Assessment applications. The deadline for filing for Farmland Assessment is August 1, 2023. There is no extension available for this deadline.
Please know that most municipalities mail out blank applications on or about June 1 to your address of record. If you do not receive your blank forms from the town, let us know as we keep plenty of blank applications handy.
Also, please note that we have moved! We are now located in Gladstone, at the Conover Corners building directly across the street from The Stable, and also across the street from the main branch of the Peapack-Gladstone Bank.
Our instructions to our clients can be read by clicking here. Our Activity Summary sheet, for helping you organize your information ahead of meeting with us or mailing in your forms, can be viewed by clicking here. For our calendar showing available office hours, click here. Lastly, directions can be found by clicking here.
We look forward to assisting you! Just don't wait until the last minute.
-Heather, Chrissy, Steve, Alex, and Lacey
We here at Gracie & Harrigan are eager to assist our clients with the preparation and certification of their Farmland Assessment applications. The deadline for filing for Farmland Assessment is August 1, 2022. There is no extension available for this deadline.
Please know that most municipalities mail out blank applications on or about June 1 to your address of record. If you do not receive your blank forms from the town, let us know as we keep plenty of blank applications handy.
Also, please note that we have moved! We are now located in Gladstone, at the Conover Corners building directly across the street from The Stable, and also across the street from the main branch of the Peapack-Gladstone Bank.
Our instructions to our clients can be read by clicking here. Our Activity Summary sheet, for helping you organize your information ahead of meeting with us or mailing in your forms, can be viewed by clicking here. For our calendar showing available office hours, click here. Lastly, directions can be found by clicking here.
We look forward to assisting you! Just don't wait until the last minute.
-Heather, Chrissy, Steve, Alex, and Lacey
Earlier in January, 2021, we moved from our former office location in Far Hills to our current location in Gladstone. Long-time clients will remember that we were located in Gladstone for about ten years, prior to the move to Far Hills in 2004. We believe that our new location will be an improvement for our clients, given that our new location has ample parking in the rear of the building.
We are now located in one of the storefront spaces in the Conover Corners building at 210 Main Street, Gladstone, NJ 07934. That is on the corner of Main Street (Gladstone) and Mendham Road, directly across the street from the Gladstone branch of the Peapack-Gladstone Bank, and also across the street from The Stable.
We look forward to seeing many of our clients over the next few months! Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.