Ewing Township has once again met the rigorous requirements to achieve Sustainable Jersey certification at the bronze-level with 225 points. Certified towns were announced at the Sustainable Jersey Annual Luncheon on November 18, 2025, in Atlantic City, during the New Jersey State League of Municipalities Conference. Accepting the award for the township was Communications Director, Julie Willmot.
Sustainable Jersey’s participating communities now represent nearly 83% of all municipalities in New Jersey, reflecting a growing statewide movement toward sustainability.
In 2025, 83 municipalities achieved Sustainable Jersey certification. Of these, 52 towns earned bronze certification and 31 achieved silver certification—the program’s more advanced level. Bronze-level certification requires a municipality to document completion of a balanced set of the program’s sustainability actions, meeting a minimum of 150 points.
Currently, 191 towns across New Jersey are certified through the Sustainable Jersey program, which continues to serve as a model for community-based environmental progress.
“It’s inspiring to see communities of every size across New Jersey leading the way toward a more sustainable and resilient future,” said Randall Solomon, director of Sustainable Jersey. “These municipalities are not waiting for change—they’re creating it, through action, innovation, and collaboration.”
Sustainable Jersey provides tools, training, and financial incentives to support communities as they pursue sustainability initiatives. As New Jersey faces challenges such as the climate crisis, a growing equity divide, and environmental pollution, municipalities and schools are taking action to be part of the solution. Sustainable Jersey participants have successfully implemented and documented nearly 30,251 sustainability actions, and the program has provided more than $8.6 million in grants to municipalities, school districts, and schools for community-based projects that create healthy and sustainable communities across the state. www.SustainableJersey.com; www.SustainableJerseySchools.com
In celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday, the Ewing Green Team and Environmental Commission have joined forces with the Mayor and Council, local businesses, and residents, to promote an audacious and worthy goal – planting 250 new trees in Ewing!
Our ask: Give America the best birthday gift ever. Plant a tree!
We can’t do it alone. We need your help! To help us achieve our shared dream of a more beautiful, healthy, and environmentally friendly Ewing, we ask that you take a simple but important step: Plant one tree!
There are many reasons to plant a tree: trees purify the air, mitigate the effects of climate change, and prevent stormwater runoff while increasing the value of your property and beautifying your neighborhood for generations to come. In fact, studies have even shown that trees enhance your mental and physical health.
DID YOU KNOW that Ewing’s tree canopy cover is low compared to the average statewide in New Jersey? (27.4% vs. 40%)
OUR GOAL: to inspire 250+ Ewing residents, businesses, and organizations to plant or pledge to plant at least 250 trees in town. This can be on your own property or by donating to plant a tree in one of Ewing’s parks and public lands.
It will soon be peak Fall planting time and we encourage you to let us know of your tree planting plans by taking ourPLEDGE TO PLANTa tree in your yard for our 250 Tree Initiative! We urge you to join with us and make your new tree one of the official 250 Trees for America’s 250th! Just click the link to fill out our quick, simple form and become a part of our movement to plant 250 trees in Ewing.
Sign the pledgeand then let us know when you have planted your tree(s). We will provide the encouragement and the know-how: from choosing your tree, planting it, and taking care of it.
We need your help! Help us meet our goal of planting at least 250 trees before the end of 2026. Ewing businesses: look for ways that you can participate in our 250 Trees for America’s 250th Campaign coming soon. For more information email us at ewinggreenteam@gmail.com.
Additional Resources
Check out Ewing Township’s Caring for Your Trees webpage at ewingnj.org/caring-for-your-trees for detailed information. The page covers a wide variety of tree topics including regular maintenance, pruning (say no to tree topping), mulching tips (no volcanoes!), choosing your tree, and much more.
We invite you to join us on Saturday, May 17th for a 2-hour workshop to learn more about the benefits of adding a rain garden to your landscape. You will enhance its beauty, all while improving drainage, and creating a wildlife habitat.
Rain gardens can help us manage storm water runoff from rooftops, driveways, lawns, roads, and other hard surfaces. They look like regular perennial gardens, but they are much more. During a storm, a rain garden fills with water, and the water slowly filters into the ground rather than running into storm sewers. By capturing storm water, rain gardens help to reduce the impact of human activities and pollution in the environment such as road sediment/salt, fertilizers, pesticides, bacteria from pet waste, eroded soil, grass clippings, litter, etc. This helps protect the health of our waterways. Rain gardens also add beauty to neighborhood and provide wildlife habitat.
In this 2-hour workshop, you can learn how to plan and plant your own rain garden, enhancing your property and your neighborhood, about the stormwater benefits of rain gardens, providing watershed-wide benefits with native plants, and go home with a plant list or draft design for your yard. Now is the perfect time to plan a rain garden for planting this spring!
Presenters: Olvia Spildooren from The Watershed Institute. Olivia is the River-Friendly Coordinator
As the old year ends and the new one begins, we frequently resolve to begin anew, to do something better and be better. To kick off 2025, the Ewing Green Team and some of our supporters share some of the personal resolutions to which we have committed for the coming year. We believe these answer a question that we commonly receive: “What can one person do to make a difference?” We share them with you as examples of simple and realistic sustainable resolutions you can implement in your daily life. What would you add to the list?
These green resolutions are part of our collective commitment to embodying the principles and actions necessary to help us face issues such as climate change, environmental pollution, the biodiversity crisis, and much more. They range from the very personal to resolutions that can easily be adopted on a wider scale. We thank you for all that you do and invite you to join us to help build a better world for future generations to come.
Best wishes for a Happy & GREEN 2025!
The Ewing Green Team
Ruth Chin
“Eradicate this spring’s garlic mustard in a 20’x30′ patch along the canal by March 31.“
Kathy Barringer
“I resolve to skip the stuff when I order takeout. I will decline plastic utensils, napkins and condiment packs. My family has also resolved to discontinue use of plastic water bottles in 2025.”
Heidi Furman
“I’ve been asked by our West Trenton Garden Club to “green” our Hospitality Committee’s practices for our monthly meetings. I resolve to do this by helping to educate our members in matters of sustainability. We’ve already primed members to remember to bring their personal reusable flask to meetings.”
Devin Spence
“I will become a more conscious consumer, knowing where products are coming from, the impact they have and questioning if I really need it.”
Daniel Bowen
“My New Year’s resolution is to choose to take my bike instead of the car to the grocery store more often this year.”
Joanne Mullowney
“As a gardener who gardens for wildlife, I resolve to step up my efforts to garden sustainably. This includes removing more non-native plants from my property and replacing them with natives, particularly keystone species that provide the greatest support for wildlife relative to their biomass. I also plan on adding a couple of new native trees to my landscape and removing more lawn to provide additional soft landings under my trees for wildlife… Whatever I can do to provide habitat and support for disappearing wildlife is on my to-do list.
Evan Crumiller
“I am going to try going the first week of January without using a single piece of reusable plastic! Depending on the results I hope to continue from there, at the very least cutting way down.”
Jennifer Keyes-Maloney
Jenn has shared that she plans to become more sustainable in 2025 with the following resolutions:
“Limit clothing purchases generally, and only purchase items that do not require dry cleaning
Bundle online purchases to avoid shipping impact
Share plants with others, and recycle plant containers
Commit to reusable containers for water and coffee.”
Aaron Watson
“We should strongly encourage everyone to enjoy nature, become stewards of the outdoors and to strive for deeper engagement in the environmental sector.”
Lisa Feldman
“I resolve to become a more mindful consumer, particularly of the food that I buy. I have gotten in a bad habit of unrealistic food purchases and end up throwing a lot of food away, salad bags that go bad, fruit that I don’t eat. Prepared meals that I think will be appealing but never seems to eat? I hate that it’s ending up in the waste, it’s costly and wasteful. I hope that I can be a better planner.”
Caroline Steward
“I hope to work on a butterfly garden. I plan to reduce my lawn size by converting it into a more bird and butterfly friendly space.”
Karen Sare
“I resolve to attend more environmental webinars and also research ways Ewing can make more of an impact regarding clean communities.”
Alexis Freiling
Has a number of goals to she wants to work on. “I plan to focus on buying fruit and vegetables that are in season. This helps reduce the reliance on greenhouses to keep fruit/vegetables stocked year-round. I also pledge to remember to bring Tupperware from home when eating out at restaurants, so I can pack up my leftovers without relying on the restaurant to-go containers. And finally, I want to create a wildlife pond in my garden, plant more native plants and replace some of my non-native plants with native alternatives in my garden.”
Mark Wetherbee
“I resolve to compost food waste and provide nature support to my landscape.”
Garry M. Keel
“Please take the time to recycle the proper items. If you are not sure what is recyclable and what is regular garbage, check with Mercer County Recycling. We all have a duty to do what we can to make our world as clean and as green as possible”
Thank you to all our members for their wonderful suggestions!
We add one final suggestion. We don’t know what the future holds for us in the coming year, but the roles of the states, local governments and environmental organizations will be more critical than ever in continuing efforts to protect and clean up our environment. So, resolve to join with us in our work, you are more than welcome. Come to a meeting and help us influence others to make needed positive changes for a better tomorrow for our town, our state, our country and our world.
Recycling Update!
#5s now accepted in 2025!
The Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA) which manages most of the curbside recycling in Mercer County, will now be accepting #5 plastics in your curbside recycling containers in 2025.
This includes items like yogurt containers, condiment containers (think ketchup bottles), amber colored medicine bottles, plastic beverage caps, and to-go containers. See Recycle Your #5s in 2025! If you are uncertain, be sure to check for the #5 in the little triangle on the bottom of the container. As a reminder, all items must be empty, clean, and dry and should not have contained any toxic or hazardous substances.
Report Road Salt Spillage
During winter ice and snow events applying road salt helps to lower the melting point of ice, allowing sidewalks, parking lots, driveways, and roadways to stay free of ice buildup. But there is a downside. Salts are also soluble. As we put it down, it dissolves into snow melt and stormwater runoff. This works its way into our storm drains that empty into our streams and rivers. As a result, the US Geological Society reports that waterway chloride levels have doubled over the past 50 years.
A Few Road Salt Facts
Salt doesn’t “go away” and is not removed by traditional water treatment plants.
Fish and plants don’t like salty water, it is toxic to freshwater animals. It is also toxic to plant life, and the soil as it builds up.
Humans don’t like it either. Our drinking water gets salty when chloride concentrations are over 250 mg/L.
Salt harms our infrastructure, corroding metal and concrete resulting in damage to our roads, bridges, and personal vehicles as well.
How You Can Help
Reduce salt use: shovel right after it snows and then salt sparingly if needed.
Remove excess salt after the salt has done it’s work.
Consider environmentally friendly alternatives such as cheese brine, beet juice and sand.
Help the Ewing Green Team in monitoring the impacts of road salt by participating in the annual New Jersey Salt Watch.
Report road salt spills on Ewing Township roads using our reporting form here. This will help the Public Works Department to remove the excess as required by NJ statute and keep our community safe.
Township Sustainability Reminder for EV Owners
If you have an electric vehicle or are considering purchasing one, Ewing Township has made recharging your vehicle more convenient with four charging stations now online at Ewing municipal locations! One ChargePoint dual port level two charger is located at the Hollowbrook Community Center (in front of the pool), and two ChargePoint dual port level two chargers are located at the Municipal Building – one in the front lot on the lower level, and the other is in the rear lot on the upper level. There is a Livingston Energy Charger by BTC dual port level two charging station at the Station 30 Fire Company at 1666 Pennington Rd. in the parking lot in the rear of the building.
Electric vehicle owners are encouraged to use these charging stations while they conduct business at the municipal building, enjoy the pool or a program at the Community Center, or visit the Construction Office to apply for a permit, or whether they’ve simply found Ewing in an EV map while on the go.
Happy New Year!
May your 2025 be filled with joy and success and may we all come together to work for a healthier, greener Ewing!
Ahhh, yes, it’s happening. Fall is finally here, and we can all breathe a deep sigh of relief. We are finally leaving the hot, sticky days of summer behind us for the cooler, more breathable days of fall. (Now, if only we could get some rain….) As we begin the dive into the month of October, we all remember why we so love autumn. Our neighborhood trees will soon blanket the ground with their last gift of the growing season, a recharge for our landscape that creates habitat for wildlife. The Ewing Green Team entreats all Ewing homeowners to treat their leaf litter, not as trash to be carted away, but rather as the gift that it truly is to the millions of tiny creatures that are a part of the life of our gardens.
Ewing Township New Leaf Collection Guidelines
By now we hope that you have heard about the updated leaf collection guidelines that will begin this fall for leaf pickup at the curb. Ordinance 24-19 allows a scheduled period of loose leaf collection during the months of November and December (and as needed in October and January) to simplify and expedite the process of leaf collection for residents. (Yard waste must be containerized for collection at the curb any time outside this scheduled collection window.) We will leave it to the Township to explain the basics of the new collection system, but suffice it to say, that the new system is a compromise. Allowing loose leaves in the street for very limited windows of time for pick up by DPW staff will be a major convenience for residents and will be balanced with the need help Ewing to keep our storm drains clear and improve water quality while maintaining compliance with New Jersey stormwater regulations.
The Green Team, of course, strongly encourages you to mulch your leaves, but does recognize that for some that may be impractical. However, we do want to take this opportunity to put in our annual plug about the benefits of keeping your leaf litter on site and dispensing with the piles of leaves in the street leaving your property.
Leave the Leaves
Leaves are a valuable resource that many property owners let go to waste every fall. They are blown into piles on the street and left for DPW pickup. They cause unsafe driving and biking conditions, clog storm drains, and can become a source of unwanted nutrient runoff into our streams and rivers causing unhealthy algae blooms.
As a homeowner, landscaper, or property manager, are there better options? Yes! “Leaving the Leaves” is a growing environmental movement that provides the best and simplest solution. It is easy to learn, easy to implement, gets great points for being “green,” and better yet, actually saves time and money!
The Benefits of Leaf Litter
In nature, trees don’t drop their bounty at the curb for pick up, but rather they bestow a host of ecological benefits including providing an insulating winter cover in the garden for plants and the tiny creatures that sustain life in the garden and help to conserve soil moisture. We encourage you to mulch with fallen leaves. As much as possible, leave them to decompose where they fall in your garden beds. Or settle the leaves under the branches of your trees and shrubs. Give it a year or so and your leaf litter will have broken down while providing mulch, improving your soil, and increasing its water retention abilities.
You can also rake out some of the leaves from the beds that might smother tender plants and cause them to rot over the winter. One option here is to add them to the compost pile. A second option is to add them to the leaf pile on the lawn. Then take your mulching mower and chop them up into small pieces. Rake up most of the chopped leaves and place them back in the garden around shrubs and plants. Now that they are greatly reduced in volume, they contribute to a neater appearance. The remainder can stay on your lawn and decompose there. Do this as needed until the end of the season and the leaves will break down over the winter.
While the option of mowing your leaves into mulch is not optimal and destroys some of the small critters that overwinter there, it is a far superior option to carting ones leaves to the curb where they provide no benefit at all to your landscape.
You might think that this leaves the yard looking a little less than perfect, however you are nourishing the landscape.
The Benefit of Providing Habitat
This somewhat messy yard contributes yet another important benefit – habitat. While habitat is not a traditional concern of the average gardener, we believe it should be, and more and more gardeners are coming to realize it. Did you know that despite its not so perfect look, leaf litter provides an important foraging space and shelter for a wide variety of birds, small mammals, and insects? Also providing benefit is the untrimmed winter garden where ladybugs and lacewings reside in native grasses and pollinating bees settle in hollow plant stems. Butterflies and moths winter in chrysalides on the ground and baby spiders hide out amid the decaying plant stems. Birds feed from dried seed heads in winter.
Some wildlife uses the leaf litter and other dead vegetation to insulate them from winter’s chill, while others, such as earthworms feed on the litter, breaking it into smaller pieces. Bacteria and fungi in turn convert theses smaller pieces into nutrients which then sustain neighboring plants. They in turn help support biodiversity by becoming food themselves. Toads, beetles, ladybugs and much more also live in your backyard’s leaf litter. Each is an integral part of the food web.
Support Wildlife Thru Your Not So Perfect Yard
We recommend the following practices to help you in your quest to provide habitat and reduce your ecological impact. Adopting good practices in the fall also leaves you well set for spring in the garden.
Leave your leaves on the property. Leave them in the garden beds when you can, mow them, or compost them.
Allow dried flower heads of some of your garden favorites to stay standing in your garden as a food resource. The dark stems and flower heads of some of our native flowers look gorgeous against the snow and nothing is more exciting than seeing our small, winged friends feasting upon the seed heads.
Don’t cut down your native ornamental grasses. Let them grow tall and seed. They provide shelter for the insects that pollinate our gardens and feed fledgling birds and other wildlife. Not to mention that they also look fabulous swaying in the wind. They make a fabulous addition to the fall and winter landscape.
Build a brush pile with fallen branches instead of removing them. If you build it, they will come. This author no sooner established a small brush pile in a back corner in the yard and it was inhabited.
Forget the chemicals. (This one is not hard. Just do it!) They flow from our properties during rain events and end up in our water supply.
Finally, don’t be in a rush to begin your garden cleanup in the spring. Wait until after several 50℉ days to begin, when spring has really arrived, allowing overwintering pollinators to move on first. You gave them a home all winter; don’t take it away from them too soon.
Vanishing Habitat
As habitat for wildlife decreases, the wildlife it supports does also. More than half the world’s wildlife has vanished since 1970. This includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
Wildlife needs habitat to survive, and we need to do a better job balancing the need to provide habitat for animals’ survival against commercial forces. Habitat requires food, water, and shelter and even a small yard can support birds, butterflies, beneficial insects, and small animals thru proper landscaping and landscaping habits.
We ask you to adopt a somewhat messy yard and eschew the leaf disposal. Keep your leaves so that they can decompose naturally in your own yard and support the butterflies and other small insects that live in the leaf litter. To learn more about how the Ewing Green Team is promoting gardening for wildlife, take a look at our initiative – the Ewing Community Wildlife Habitat Project. During this season of renewal so essential to preserving the next generation of wildlife, we invite you to join with us and pledge to garden messy. Then put your feet up and enjoy the season.
During winter ice and snow events applying road salt helps to lower the melting point of ice, allowing sidewalks, parking lots, driveways, and roadways to stay free of ice buildup. But there is a downside. Salts are also soluble. As we put it down, it dissolves into snow melt and stormwater runoff. This works its way into our storm drains that empty into our streams and rivers. As a result, the US Geological Society reports that waterway chloride levels have doubled over the past 50 years.
Sustainable Ewing Green Team 
