CAPE MAY – At its Feb. 21 meeting, Cape May City Council adopted a resolution to ban the posting of signs and similar items on trees. The move comes at the recommendation of the Shade Tree Commission.
Commission Chair Jay Schatz told council, “This ordinance will protect Cape May’s living trees,” adding, “Trees can take a lot of abuse but not forever.”
Schatz reminded the public, “The city already has plenty of signposts.”
The new ordinance update bans the affixing of any item, notice or other printed material “upon any tree in a public right of way by any means.”
The ordinance also states, as a “rebuttable presumption,” that any person whose identifying information appears on a posted item is the person in violation of the ordinance.
Penalties for posting on trees include the cost of removal of the unauthorized posting, with every separate item on trees constituting a separate violation.
The ordinance states that posting material on trees not only damages the external bark of the tree, but also increases the chance of a pathogen causing infection in the tree.
