Brookdale Park Gets Nearly 140 New Trees

Trees company in Brookdale Park.

Workers planted Wednesday 136 young trees throughout the Bloomfield side of the park, which also spans Montclair, thanks to a more than $20,000 urban grant.

The trees, which came from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Community Forestry and were secured by Essex County and the New Jersey Tree Foundation, were planted along the roadside to supplement the park's already lush landscape.

"Just to think, a few weeks ago we had Hurricane Sandy," said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. "We had so many trees down," in other parks, he said, noting that Brookdale Park fared the best out of all county parks.

Officials said 25 trees had to be removed from Brookdale Park in wake of Sandy, the powerful post-tropical storm that even uprooted several large trees in Bloomfield.

A dozen or so workers planted trees native to New Jersey, like the sugar maple, alongside the park's winding road, as stipulated by the grant. The decision of where to plant the new trees was based on the Olmsted Brothers' original design of the park, dating back to 1928, said Yuliya Bellinger, a landscape designer and member of the Brookdale Park Conservancy.

"Sugar maples are one of the best trees to plant," said Bellinger of the tree species that grows as big as 40 by 20 ft.

The Brookdale Park Conservancy is expected to maintain the new trees for at least two years and will be raising money to help do so.

"Once they put them in, these are our babies," said George Prell, chairman of the conservancy. He credited Susan Jankolovitz and Bellinger with being instrumental in obtaining the trees.