Winter 2000

[TEXT ARCHIVE WEB-PUBLISHED MARCH 2002.
ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION DATE: WINTER 2000.]

Palos Park Tree Body: Protecting Trees, Restoring the Forest

By Nathan Aaberg

"Nobody likes it when Commonwealth Edison trims trees. Certainly not the residents of Palos Park in southwestern Cook County. Palos Park is a small village with a small budget, but lots of big, majestic trees. So when ComEd crews trimmed aggressively in 1993 to protect power lines, the residents responded with an uproar. Restrained by a tiny tax base, however, Palos Park was simply unable to create a fully funded forestry department. So the village established Palos Park Tree Body. The name is suitably informal, even ambiguous, for an entity expected to use volunteers and creativity when its limited budget and lack of any full-time staff come up short.

The Tree Body name also captures the essence of Palos Park — an area still framed by the oak-dominated woodlands among which cottages were first set when University of Chicago professors sought a place of tranquil retreat in the late 1800s.

In the 1990s, that woodland frame is failing. A tree survey revealed that maintaining the health of the village's parkway trees would require 20 times the Tree Body's annual budget. At the same time, many trees on private property were in danger as few owners understood the value of the oaks on their properties. One man, for example, purchased a woodland lot and promptly began to cut every tree in sight before he had even thought about where his future house would go. "My wife," he said in explanation, "loves grass."

One of the Tree Body's first major efforts was a campaign to pass an ordinance providing protection to trees on public and private property. When this struggle came to an unhappy end, some members quit. The 1996 survey made even more clear the paucity of the Tree Body's resources. Exhausted and disheartened, more members left. After a while, only Linda Johnson, the current chairman, and Carol Vander-velde remained.

The next year was like George Washington's winter at Valley Forge — a grim, dark time with renewal just beyond the horizon. In fact, Linda Johnson says, "This (period) was a good thing because it made us look around for expertise." Area experts and institutions, many of them members of Chicago Wilderness, gladly shared their knowledge.

What Linda and Carol learned broadened their vision. "We saw it's not just trees," says Linda. "This is biodiversity. This is ecosystem management."

Linda Johnson remembers the essence of consultant Paul Petan's challenging words: "...the problem with your group is you're not thinking big enough. You have to dream!"

Two years later, the Tree Body stands re-invigorated even as its challenges remain daunting. What has changed are attitude and presentation. While still singing the praises of the natural world for its own sake, the Tree Body now finds common ground with many Palos Park residents by also speaking in the positive rhetoric of property value protection. As Linda, a retired high school teacher, says, "The reason the property values are higher in Palos Park is because of the beautiful environment." When pocketbook-oriented residents understand that, they come to an important realization — incremental losses of trees and open space corrode the character of Palos Park with negative financial consequences for everyone.

A measure of the success of this approach came in July when many residents showed up at a village council meeting to resist the proposed sale of an "unused" wetland owned by the village. The council ultimately declined to part with the parcel.

The Tree Body now has many more volunteers and many more allies within the village government. Younger residents are also making their voices heard. An affiliated foundation is in the process of being created to attract more outside funding. Thinking big, the Tree Body successfully encouraged the village council to include strong emphasis on the protection of the village's natural resources and support for natural landscaping in the village's 20-year comprehensive plan.

While the Tree Body presses forward with a far-reaching vision, its members continue to mind the everyday details. For instance, members are helping to direct the Public Work's department's tree maintenance operations and even guide the location and species selection for new tree plantings.

"What we feel here," Linda says, "is a lot of momentum building."