Riverside’s forester will start an experimental program to diversify the village’s tree stock with more disease-resistant species thanks to a $5,000 donation from a Riverside resident.
Michael Collins, Riverside’s forester, said that the effort to diversify trees on public lands was sparked by diseases such as Dutch elm and the emergence in the Midwest of pests such as the gypsy moth, emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle.
“What it has taught us is that species diversity-having many different types of trees planted-is a much more positive approach,” Collins said.
While the emerald ash borer and longhorned beetle have not shown up in Riverside yet, the village has had run-ins with the gypsy moth and long experience with Dutch elm disease, which hit 61 elm trees in 2006 and 87 in 2005. Through last week, Collins said that 20 elms on public land had been diagnosed with Dutch elm, while another 12 had been identified with Dutch elm on private property.
“It’s been a moderate to severe case of Dutch elm disease this year,” Collins said.
Riverside has roughly 1,100 ash trees on public lands. Because of the emerald ash borer threat, Riverside stopped planting ash trees in 2002.
At the July 10 meeting of the Riverside Landscape Advisory Commission, resident Steven Campbell offered to donate the $5,000 to get the program started, an offer enthusiastically accepted by the commission. LAC Chairwoman Jacqueline Paine said that the donation could provide for the purchase of at least 25 trees.
“I think it’s the single biggest donation we’ve ever had,” Paine said. “We’re totally overwhelmed.”
Paine said that the program is part of an effort to control the loss of trees such as elms in large numbers.
“We have serious concerns,” Paine said. “The struggle right now is to maintain what we have.”
What makes the new program experimental is that Collins will be purchasing trees that are not currently on the village’s list of approved trees, but are similar to ones that are. Among the species he’s looking at buying are the Accolade Elm, a species developed at the Morton Arboretum and very resistant to Dutch elm disease. Other trees under consideration, Collins said, are the Autumn Blaze maple and Yellowwood.
“It’ll be done in small amounts so we won’t be ruining what the village has already developed,” Collins said.
In addition to the planting program funded by the private donation, the village is also trying to diversify its tree stock by applying for membership in the Suburban Tree Consortium, a program offered through the West Central Municipal Conference, of which Riverside is a member.
The village’s Board of Trustees in June passed a resolution to seek inclusion in the Suburban Tree Consortium, which has 30 member towns.
The village currently purchases its trees from Possibility Place, a nursery in Monee. The village’s contract with the nursery is set to expire at the end of August. But Possibility Place is a current member of the Suburban Tree Consortium, along with four other tree nurseries. The additional vendors providing a more diverse species mix and competitive pricing offered through the Suburban Tree Consortium are the driving forces to join the group.
Until membership in the tree consortium is finalized, the village is holding off on accepting orders from residents for its annual cooperative tree planting program, where residents pay for a portion of trees planted in the public parkways. The village plants between 80 and 120 trees a year under the program.
“Right now we offer five or six different types of oaks with one, two or three different parkway trees,” Collins said. “After we join [the tree consortium] we’ll be able to offer eight to 10 different species of parkway trees.”