Grant will buy pin oak trees for Main Street

SUSSEX — The Sussex Borough Shade Tree Commission is in line to receive a $7,000 grant from a division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to plant 15 Green Pillar Pin Oak trees along Main Street next spring. The funding for the project should be approved sometime in January, according to Bruce LaBar, the borough’s Council President and a member of the shade tree commission. The commission recently submitted a five-year plan to the NJ DEP’s Division of Parks and Forestry’s Community Forestry Program “and they gave us an opportunity to apply for a community forestry grant,” said LaBar. “We seem to have met all of their requirements.” An Internet search reveals that the Green Pillar Pin Oak grows in a tight column up to 50 to 60 feet in height and has dark green spiny leaves through the spring and summer which turn red in the fall. LaBar said the shade tree commission hopes to plant the new trees in April.