Across the highway from the Newburgh Mall lies 122 acres of wasteland.

It was more than a decade ago that developers of the proposed Marketplace, with permits and approvals in hand, broke ground for their mega mall complex. The large track of wooded land was cleared in anticipation of what was to come: bulldozers and other heavy machines, construction crews and eventually a shopping center with large stores, a multi-screen cinema and a grocery store. It never came.

When the original developers couldn’t get the necessary funding and started to lose anchor stores, another developer stepped in. That led to more roadblocks and a lot more of the same. Today there is little sign of life beyond the fence that faces Route 300. What is there – for as far as the eye can see - is acres and acres of dirt that is slowly being covered over by grass. The 122-acres worth of trees that were cut down in preparation for this project are long gone.

It’s too late to save that site, but if Newburgh Town Councilman James Presutti has his way, something like this will never happen again. A law that Presutti is proposing would require developers to reforest the land if their project is not completed. This would be done by requiring them to post a large enough performance bond during the planning board process that if they fail to do so, there would be enough money in the town’s coffers that it would be done for them.

The 15-page law is still in its revision stage, but once it is ready, the town will schedule a public hearing. Councilmembers are hopeful the tree preservation and protection law could be passed by the end of the summer, if not sooner. It’s a law that should be passed in the Town of Newburgh, and elsewhere.

We are a little early for Arbor Day, which traditionally falls on the last Friday of April, and there really isn’t enough room here to list all the reasons why trees are important, so we’ll just list a few of them: they produce the oxygen we breath and clean the carbon dioxide from the air; they prevent erosion of soil and they provide a natural habitat for many species of animals. Wonder why there are now more sightings of deer, bears and other wild animals in and around the valley? It’s because we’ve destroyed their natural habitat and they have nowhere to go.

The law will not prevent overdevelopment. We will still need planners and planning and zoning boards to do their job, but this will help.

Protecting trees is never a bad thing.