Together, they would be a small forest, and, with 47 species, they could likely be an arboretum.
This spring, 20,000 trees–enough to cover some 400 acres–are being planted in Chicago at a total cost of nearly $10 million.
Throughout the city–on parkways and in parks, along historic boulevards and the sidewalks of business districts–more trees are being planted than ever in Chicago’s history. It is part of a growing conviction among urban planners that the aesthetics of trees can help temper social ills, in city and suburbs alike.
Beyond that, said Forrest Claypool, general superintendent of the Chicago Park District, “Planting a tree is the ultimate act of love. The person who plants it never really gets the full benefit of that tree. Some future generation gets it.”
This spring, the Park District will put 7,000 trees in the ground, and the Chicago Department of Transportation, using $3 million in federal highway funds, will plant just more than 6,000 along the 28 miles of historic boulevards that wind through city neighborhoods.
The mayor’s Greenstreets program will plant 3,000 trees around schools, in cul-de-sacs and in pits in the sidewalks of business districts. The city’s Bureau of Forestry will place 4,000 trees in parkways in front of homes throughout Chicago.
A study by the Human Environment Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported that trees help to reduce violence in urban settings. The 1995 study of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Robert Taylor Homes showed that residents had a stronger sense of community and felt safer in areas of the development where there were trees, and that there was significantly less violence in those areas.
Still, even trees have their critics.
For one, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a frequent critic of Mayor Richard Daley, pans the effort.
“It is a very expensive and poorly arranged rendition of Johnny Appleseed,” Rush said. “It is a total misuse of taxpayers’ dollars, it is excessive. I think that (Daley) is really obsessed with trees and plants and flowers. I think he had this desire to be Johnny Appleseed when he was younger, and he is playing this out now.
“It is another way the taxpayers are gouged. The money could be spent for affordable housing, schools, summer jobs programs–the list goes on and on where the money can be better spent. We all love to see greenery, but this is far excessive.”
Rather than merely adding trees to the city landscape, the record number and variety of plantings are designed to mitigate any future tree loss from disease.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Chicago lost tens of thousands of trees as Dutch elm disease ravaged the American elm, the mainstay of the Chicago urban forest. Shrubbery and trees in Chicago parks have also lost out to national defense and fears about public safety over the years.
During the Cold War, anti-aircraft missile batteries were built in Lincoln and Jackson Parks, flattening trees as they guarded against the Red menace.
Many bushes were removed from parks in the 1960s after some assaults of people. “I would rather trim the shrubbery down and prevent some child or woman from being molested,” a Park District official said at the time.
Nearly all the trees to be planted in the city this year have been purchased from commercial sources and are being installed by private contractors that bid for the work.
Most of the trees have grown in a nursery for four to eight years. They are then removed from the ground, and a large ball of dirt containing the root system is wrapped in burlap before the tree is trucked to its new planting site.
Although the ball contains roots, about 90 percent of the root system is lost in the transplanting process. This brings a shock, or transplant trauma, to the tree. The bigger the tree, the greater the trauma, so officials must use only younger trees.
The three years after the transplant are critical for the trees’ survival. During the first year, the watering is the responsibility of the contractor, which guarantees replacement if trees don’t survive, officials said. The city has special programs to water new trees during droughts.
About 5 percent to 10 percent of transplanted trees will not survive, estimated Chris Gent, of the city’s Department of Transportation. That percentage is greater in areas of high exposure to road salt.
Certain species have been shown to be more tolerant to road salt and are being used in places such as the median on Lake Shore Drive.
The Kentucky coffee tree is one of those, said Robert Megquier, director of engineering for the parks.
“Our trees do best in large, open park space,” Megquier said. “In smaller parks, there is more foot traffic, and people moving through the park creates problems with soil compaction.”
But the smaller parks are a prime target of the tree-planting program.
For example, at Logan Square, part of the historic boulevard system, the Transportation Department planted 81 trees near the Illinois Centennial Monument in recent weeks.
They include hackberry, patmore green ash, skyline honeylocust, red oak, swamp white oak, alpine currant, Virginia rose and three varieties of hawthorns, downy, Washington and thornless cockspur.
Two of the biggest threats to trees, new and old, are lawn mowers and barbecues, officials say.
Claypool said that in parks, particularly lakefront ones, hundreds of trees have been lost or damaged because unthinking picnickers dumped hot charcoal from their grills at the base of trees before heading home.
The coals burn the tree bark, killing the tree or greatly inhibiting its growth. Likewise, lawn mowers can nick the bark of new trees and do serious harm, Claypool said.
As a deterrent, a protective area of mulch is being placed around the base of trees; the mulch helps hold in moisture and keeps the mowers away.
“People see the mulch and make the connection. They realize that it would not be wise to dump charcoal there,” Claypool said.
Although the boulevard planting program is a one-time effort, planting goes on every year by the Park District and Bureau of Forestry and under the Greenstreets program.
“Each year, for the last four, we have set a new record for planting,” Claypool said.
In 1994, 1995 and 1996, the district planted a total of 18,379 trees.
As for the arrangement of the trees, Megquier said, “We try not to fill up the whole park, but to plant in patterns, intermixing shade and ornamental trees. In the spring, all the ornamental trees are blooming, and this provides floral interest. Some of the ornamental trees and the shade trees will develop good fall colors so you will have seasonal interest as well.”
The Village of Onarga, 75 miles south of Chicago, is known as the “nursery capital of the Midwest,” with more than 2,000 acres planted with dozens of species of trees destined for transplanting in Chicago and elsewhere.
“There are a lot of trees being grown in nurseries, and a lot of demand for them with new homes being built,” said Carl Bork, who operates a 50-year-old family nursery in Onarga. “But I do not see any shortage. We are not going to run out of shade trees.”
