9 12 24 West Orange BOA ZB 24 06 PSEG Full size Transcript

Page 136 1 removed. 2 ACTING CHAIR SCHWARZBAUM: So how many 3 have already been removed? 4 THE WITNESS: That was 31. 5 ACTING CHAIR SCHWARZBAUM: Okay. So that 6 leaves 56 trees. 7 THE WITNESS: So moving -- I'm going 8 towards the interior of the site now. We do have a 9 cluster of trees here that are being removed. 10 There's a different hatch here. These are actually 11 in poor health. That's why they are slated for 12 removal. And that's really the only other 13 rationale. It's either new work or poor health. 14 Those are the only two reasons we'll be removing 15 trees. 16 So the ones up here, there's white ash, 17 for example, that is prevalent throughout the site. 18 But there's a cluster of white ash up here. White 19 ash is suffering from what's called the emerald ash 20 borer. It's a blight. It's impacting a lot of 21 trees specifically on this site but throughout the 22 state, and we're seeing it here. And we're seeing 23 detrimental impacts to the trees' health. 24 So they are in decline and posing a 25 hazard, effectively. So that's why you see some of