Aberdeen Gives Away Free Tree Seedlings Saturday At Town Hall

ABERDEEN, NJ — Free tree seedlings will be available to any Aberdeen resident who wants them this Saturday, May 1 as part of the New Jersey Forest Service’s New Jersey Tree Recovery Campaign.

From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, residents will be able to pick up tree seedlings at Aberdeen Town Hall. Seedlings are available on a first-come, first-served basis and will come with instructions on how to store, care for and plant the trees. The guides will also tell you how to choose the right place on your property to plant a tree while keeping in mind the tree’s full-grown size in the future.

Residents should plant the seedlings within two days after pick-up in order to prevent the roots from drying out.

Look for them Saturday on the front lawn of Aberdeen Town Hall (1 Aberdeen Square).

The goal of the Tree Recovery Campaign is to distribute over 600,000 tree seedlings to New Jersey residents over the course of seven years.

When properly planted and maintained, trees can be assets to a community. They improve the visual appeal of a neighborhood or business district, increase property values, reduce home cooling costs, remove air pollutants, and provide wildlife habitat, among many other benefits.

With natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, and the damage caused by several new invasive insects to New Jersey, the state of New Jersey needs more new tree seedlings than ever before.

The program is a joint effort between Aberdeen, New Jersey Forest Service, New Jersey Soil Conservation Districts, Arbor Day Foundation, iCIMS, FedEx, State Farm and International Paper.

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