East Orange, NJ Tree Protection: Heritage & Protected Trees (2026)

East Orange City Code § 51-193A(1) states the City Council's purpose to regulate and control indiscriminate and excessive cutting of trees within the City, preserve the maximum possible number of trees in the course of development of a site, protect specimens of trees, and provide the replacement of trees, declaring that trees are among the City's most valuable assets. Subsection D(1) turns that purpose into a size-based protection standard: maximum effort must be made to save large or rare specimens, and any existing tree of six-inch caliper or greater cannot be removed unless its location interferes unduly with construction; no building material, mortar or temporary soil may be piled within four feet of a protected shrub or 10 feet of a protected tree.

Subsection D(2) requires a self-supporting protective barrier, at least four feet high, such as snow fencing, around every plant designated to remain for the duration of construction. When removal of a specimen tree is unavoidable, Subsection M(7) and M(8) require the reviewing board to weigh criteria such as species and condition, safety hazard, disease and lean before authorizing the cut, and M(9) requires replacement at 20% to 80% of the trees removed, scaled to the percentage of the site's tree cover taken down, using stock of at least three-inch caliper.