Chicago trees that haven’t been trimmed in 25 or 30 years are finally getting the attention they deserve.
Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard said Friday his crews have trimmed 53,188 trees since Jan. 1. That’s a 172% improvement over the 19,525 trees trimmed during the same period a year ago.
Over the years, the long wait to get a tree trimmed in Chicago has been a chronic complaint of alderpersons and their constituents.
Not this year.
Using twice as many crews and a grid-based system to blitz specific geographic areas, Streets and Sanitation’s Bureau of Forestry is on track to finally deliver on its ambitious plan to trim every tree in Chicago in the next five years and maintain that five-year cycle.
Chicago has also planted more than 40,000 new trees over the last year with a goal of planting 75,000 over five years.
“We’re on track to trim 90,000 trees in a calendar year. We’re running across trees that haven’t been trimmed in 25 to 30 years,” Stallard told alderpersons during Friday’s City Council budget hearing.
“I started asking people, `When was the last time you saw a forestry crew in front of your house?’” Stallard said. “People were saying, ‘I’ve never seen a forestry crew trim in front of my house.’”
Tree trimming is not a sexy city service, but it’s pivotal and not just for aesthetic reasons.
If diseased or infested branches are not removed, trees can become weaker. Heavy winds and severe storms can also caused tree limbs to fall and damage homes, property and endanger residents.
Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) also pointed to the “financial exposure” that stems from lawsuits against the city for “not taking care of the tree canopy.”
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) said there are “few, if any city services” that have improved 172%. To accomplish that in one year is “border-line mind-boggling,” he said.
The Department of Streets and Sanitation can make or break a Council member. If garbage doesn’t get picked up on time or streets don’t get plowed fast enough after a major snowstorm, the Council member not only gets the blame, but could be thrown out of office.
Stallard also reported a three-week wait for garbage carts compared to eight months two years ago, a decrease in the number of “leaky” garbage trucks that leave behind a mess in alleys and a dramatic reduction in one-person refuse collection crews — from 169 crews to just 51.
Stallard also reported that 1,650 people have signed up for the first-ever citywide composting initiative, a program that will allow residents to drop off their household food scraps at one of fifteen designated locations.
It could be a prelude to the collection of food waste and other organic waste material for all residents served by Streets and Sanitation who opt in.
With snow season fast approaching, Streets and Sanitation has stockpiled 425,000 tons of salt. But Stallard acknowledged that snow equipment is “a bit of a challenge right now.”
The addition of 20 street sweepers and 37 additional garbage trucks will help. During major snowstorms, garbage trucks are equipped with so-called “quick-hitch” plows.
Even so, Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) sounded the alarm about the city’s “very aging fleet” while recalling what happened during the Blizzard of ‘79 that buried then-Mayor Michael Bilandic.
“It’ll be 45 years ago this February,” O’Shea said, “that a mayor of this city … lost an election because of the aging fleet.”
“We had issues getting salt spreaders and plows out because they wouldn’t start. I know we’re not there,” O’Shea said. “But the alarm needs to be sounded a little bit louder that we need get more aggressive on replacing aging equipment.”
