From treating ash trees to neighborhood outreach to petitions, residents rally to protect the urban forest

While Chicago figures out how to make its urban forest more equitable, some residents are taking tree matters into their own hands.

A Tribune investigation found that in the past decade more street trees have ended up in higher socioeconomic areas deemed lower priorities for planting. These trees, which the city plants on the public right of way, can have a direct impact on residents’ lives.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has promised to plant 75,000 trees as part of an initiative called “Our Roots Chicago,” and advocates are hopeful about a city where the benefits of trees are equitably distributed.

Meanwhile, residents are fighting to save ash trees and rallying to keep old-growth trees in the ground during water department work. Some neighborhood groups have worked for years to engage and excite residents about trees — efforts that the city says it will support as part of its new program.

Here’s how some Chicagoans are helping out the urban forest:

More than a thousand tree removals in recent years were a result of water department work.

Rosemary Feit organized the West Lakeview neighborhood against the removal of old-growth trees last fall after residents learned about a water main replacement project. Feit, who grew up in the city, had childhood memories of laying on the grass and looking up at “arched hallways of trees.” She didn’t want to see that image disappear.

“I want to believe we’re in a city that cares about this,” Feit told the Tribune when the fate of the trees was unknown. “But it kind of feels like window dressing at this point.”

As neighbors signed a petition and voiced their concerns at community meetings, the department didn’t budge. But crews eventually planned to move the main away from the trees. To date the trees are still there, Feit said.

The water department credited the tree-sparing effort to “a combination of solutions.”

In recent years, some aldermen have encouraged the city to try technologies used in other cities that allow for repairs that lessen tree harm.

Given the work other cities have undertaken to save trees, Feit thought Chicago’s immediate approach lacked creativity.

“It just feels like it shouldn’t have been this hard,” Feit said. “It still confuses me as to why it was such a struggle and why there is so much resistance in the department of water management to tackling these projects in a way that prioritizes trees given that the city is making an investment in the tree canopy.”

When asked if the city has a plan to minimize tree removals during the large-scale water main and lead pipe replacement work ahead, as well as how many trees stand to be affected, a water department spokeswoman said the department evaluates the removal of old-growth trees on an individual basis and decisions often can’t be made until construction begins.

The department said it’s “always investigating new techniques and procedures” to carry out work while saving trees.

Feit wondered whether other neighborhoods would fare as well in similar circumstances.

“We’re a well-resourced neighborhood,” Feit said. “So what does that mean for other neighborhoods that don’t have that same level of resource, or the same sort of alderman who’s invested in the outcome we were invested in?”

Farther south, residents are focused on their own tree endeavors, by making sure dying trees are replaced and educating neighbors about the benefits of new ones.

Imani Green Health Advocates trains young people to learn about the connection between conservation and community health. The program is part of Imani Village, a Black-led organization connected to Trinity United Church of Christ.

The advocates have begun another summer of tree health monitoring and planting in South Side neighborhoods including Pullman, Roseland, Washington Heights and Chatham, said Ajiah Gilbert, program leader for Imani Green Health Advocates.

Gilbert said this season’s goal for their Treesilience program is 50 trees in the ground by the end of November.

There’s been a turning point since the program started, Gilbert said. Sometimes, even if a resident doesn’t need to have a tree removed, they’ll request a new one.

“I’m not sure if a few years ago that would have been the case,” Gilbert said. “A lot of people wanted trees removed but they didn’t want a new tree on their property.”

That change may be a result of the group’s grassroots approach, which involves door knocking, handing out flyers and dispelling tree myths. Advocates are also directly connected to the community, Gilbert said.

“It’s not just Chicago coming in, planting trees without asking,” she said. “It’s people who are from this community, people who work in this community.”

Residents have fought to get the city to treat ash trees again, a practice it gave up years ago as the invasive emerald ash borer beetle killed off thousands of trees.

John Friedmann is a leader of the effort, which picked up steam in North Side communities where neighborhood groups have organized to pay for tree-saving treatments.

Friedmann visits the seven species of ash trees in Horner Park he’s been able to treat with money from craft beer fundraisers, with another coming up in July.

But it shouldn’t be up to residents to pay out of pocket to treat the trees, advocates say, as that effort may not be an option or priority for all residents.

In recent years, some communities have had more ash trees removed than overall trees planted.

“The reason why we’re trying to maintain the ash is so we can maintain the canopy,” Friedmann said. “We really feel the city has to pick up the charge to expand the program. There’s just no other equitable way to do it.”

The city says it will survey all remaining ash trees starting in July, but plans to treat the trees again have not been solidified. Those organizing to save ashes worry the process could drag on, with more trees lost in that time.

Between 2011 and 2016, the city treated tens of thousands of ash trees and tracked the population as the emerald ash borer spread. By 2015, more than half of overall street tree removals were ash trees, as nearly 10,000 ashes were cut down. The city says it moved to a new system in 2016 and wasn’t able to track species again until last year.

Friedmann recently visited two neighborhood ashes next to each other. Only one had been treated. A few years ago they looked the same, but today one has lost more than half of its leaves, while the other has full, leafy canopy.

“It personifies the waste of letting these things die,” he said. “If we don’t intervene now, there’s going to be nothing to intervene for.”

mgreene@chicagotribune.com

jmahr@chicagotribune.com