Glen Ellyn, Tree City for 39th time!
by Karin
This week marked the return of Spring, and while the temps don’t always feel like it, the trees know and are preparing for their big leafy unveil. And here in Glen Ellyn, the trees feel especially welcome, as our village was again designated a Tree City USA for the 39th straight year by the Arbor Day Foundation.
Being a Tree CIty USA means the village has a dedicated effort to actively manage our urban forest. Beyond the Tree City USA designation, Glen Ellyn received a second award from the foundation called the Growth Award, which recognizes communities who are building sustainable forestry programs with a view to the future.Glen Ellyn has long recognized the importance of trees, and not just for their beauty. An urban canopy brings heat resilience, animal and insect habitat provision, air quality improvement, and flooding mitigation. Glen Ellyn has a village forester as part of the Public Works department who oversaw the planting of 431 trees in Glen Ellyn, including those in the downtown streetscape project.
If you have a few minutes, revisit the “Trees of Glen Ellyn” flower pot program that Go Green coordinated for the village last summer. Each pot featured amazing art work from local ‘green’ organizations, as well as relevant tree trivia.
Glen Ellyn’s tree canopy is something to celebrate, and preserve! The Chicago Region Trees Initiative, founded by our next door neighbor, the Morton Arboretum, has tracked the health of the urban forest in the area to help ‘speak for the trees’ which provide so many benefits to our community. The survey measured the percent of tree canopy as well as plantable area. Below you can see a canopy comparison with some neighboring communities. Glen Ellyn also has additional plantable space – nearly 750 acres! The report also calculates a cash benefit for trees to the village, and finds more than $5M in benefits such as stormwater reduction and carbon sequestration. The full report on Glen Ellyn can be found here.
Graphic sourced from Glen Ellyn Urban Forestry Summary from the Chicago Regions Tree Initiative, p. 5.
HUG A TREE!
Ok, so maybe instead of hugging, let’s appreciate them and work to preserve our canopy! Take a hike and look for signs of spring in buds popping out and sap running. Check out the stately oak stands at Lake Ellyn. Do some forest bathing at Churchill Park or Churchill Woods. Take a hike to the Oak savannah at Maryknoll. We have so many parks to explore and with the weather warming, why not head out and look for signs of spring in our forests.
We can’t rest on our current tree laurels so let’s plant some more! Seventy percent of Glen Ellyn’s canopy consists of trees on private land so we each can play a part in contributing. Spring is a great time to plant new trees. When adding to your corner of the urban forest, look for native varieties and consider planting oaks. Oak trees are critical to our ecosystem and support more types of life than any other kind of tree! Native trees are generally more resilient, usually drought-hardy, have less disease, prevent soil erosion, house wildlife, and prevent the takeover of invasive trees. (Invasive tree species like buckthorn and bush honeysuckles make up over one in three trees in Glen Ellyn.)
And of course, love the trees you have! Learn how to care for them, including the proper way to mulch (volcanos are out!). If you have a question about how to care for your trees, the Morton Arboretum offers free advice through their hotline plant clinic.
