Michael Collins, Riverside’s village forester, is making like a tree and leaving.
After more than 20 years of service leading the village’s forestry efforts, Collins is departing the village. His last day will be Saturday, May 16, a landscape workday with members of the Olmsted Society of Riverside.
Collins will lay his roots down in Hinsdale as the village’s new superintendent of forestry and grounds, he told the Landmark.
“It was a very hard decision to move on. I have a lot of lasting relationships in the community, and I will certainly miss all my collaborations, partnerships and favorite residents,” he said. “I feel like I left the place better than I found it.”
The move comes just weeks after Collins held his final Arbor Day celebration on Friday, April 24, where he led Ames Elementary School students in singing “Know Your Oaks” and taught them about the pecan and sweet birch trees that were planted at the Repton-Southcote triangle park.
Collins named the numerous Arbor Day celebrations he’s attended since joining Riverside at the end of 2004 as one of his favorite memories of working in the village, though he said, “There’s almost too many to count.”
“The most memorable thing would be working with all the volunteers in the community and how engaged the Riverside community is in their landscape. Every day, I would drive across the Barrypoint bridge going to work, and I’d always remind myself that I was taking care of Frederick Law Olmsted’s master works, and I always took a lot of pride in that,” Collins said.
He named numerous residents and community members who had left a mark on him in his 21 and a half years with the village, including one dedicated resident who he called the “Lady on Longcommon.”
“She would routinely donate thousands of dollars to the village annually and put in over 300 or 400 hours weeding on the Longcommon. To me, people like that are an inspiration, and whenever I would thank her, she said, ‘Don’t thank me. I love doing this!’ That’s the kind of community that Riverside is.”
Collins shared a story of a Girl Scouts troop he would meet with after school early on in his career in Riverside to cut buckthorn together.
“I remember being at a Fourth of July, and a couple young college kids came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Collins! We used to love doing that stuff!’ Stuff like that is amazing,” he said. “When you work in a community for 20 years, to have someone you worked with as a fourth or fifth grader come up to you and express how much they value those experiences, it makes it all the more special.”
The forester said he took an interest in the outside world from an early age.
“I grew up in unincorporated Lombard right by the DuPage River, so, as a young kid, I hiked a lot and biked a lot. Before it was really developed over there, there were all sorts of cornfields and biking trails, the river and frogs and all sorts of crazy stuff. I was drawn to getting lost in the woods at a really young age with my friends.”
He said he had “never even been to Riverside” when he first joined the village’s team after living in Brookfield and working at Cantigny Park in Wheaton.
“I’d always been interested in managing a large-scale forest, like a municipal forest,” he said. “At the time, Kathleen Rush was the village manager, and Mike Houlihan was the director, and they were both very welcoming. I think we all connected well in the interview process. They hired me, and we were off to the races.”
Collins emphasized his gratitude to staff, officials and residents in Riverside, especially members of the landscape advisory commission, alongside his excitement to make more memories in Hinsdale.
“I view them as pretty similar communities, actually. Hinsdale’s a bit larger in size but very historic in nature, beautiful homes, and a beautiful setting to perform urban forest management,” he said. “It’s bittersweet.”
In an email, Public Works Director Dan Tabb said Collins’ work has “left a meaningful and lasting impact” on Riverside.
“Throughout his tenure, he has guided the village’s urban forest through several significant challenges, including emerald ash borer [beetles], Dutch elm disease, and most recently, spongy moth,” an invasive species that can harm trees during reproduction, Tabb said. “Mike has focused on building a more diversified and resilient tree canopy — one that will benefit the community for generations to come.”
Riverside is now hiring for Collins’ replacement with a starting pay rate of $41.85 hourly, an annualized wage upwards of $85,000.
