This year is the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Oak Park Forestry Commission. Created in 1981 at the recommendation of the Village Reforestation Committee — headed by civic leader, village trustee and renowned Field Museum entomologist Dr. Rupert Wenzel — one of its stated purposes was “consulting with the forester and advising the board in regard to control of Dutch elm disease and other tree and shrub diseases and insect problems.” Because of the efficient management of Dutch elm disease by the forestry commission at that time, Oak Park still has more mature elms (about 1,700 per the 2011 tree inventory) lining our streets than many communities.
Unfortunately, however, we have been experiencing a spike in Dutch elm disease the past few years at the very time the emerald ash borer is threatening to kill our entire native ash tree population (about 2,500 per the 2011 tree inventory). The combined total of American elms and ash trees lining our parkways represents 23 percent of the total parkway tree population. This means nearly one-fourth of our 18,500 parkway trees will likely be lost in the near future, necessitating a considerable investment in maintaining and replanting our parkways with an even wider variety of tree species than we’ve had in the past.
A rational person might think this would spur our village board to provide greater support to the forestry commission and to direct the Oak Park Citizens Involvement Commission to solicit the public service of citizen volunteers with expertise in forestry and entomology to help the village prepare for this. Instead, the village board, with only Trustee Hale (the forestry commission liaison) dissenting, voted Feb. 22 to abolish the forestry commission and fold it into the community design commission. This was done pursuant to a recommendation by the citizen involvement commission without consulting with the current members of the forestry commission, some of whom have served on the commission for five years. In making this recommendation, they only talked to two people: the village forester, Jim Semelka, and the new forestry commission chairman, Tom Philion, who has chaired only a handful of meetings and with no prior experience on the commission. Though the review had been in the works since June 2010, no one notified the forestry commission members of it until after the village board accepted the citizen involvement commission’s recommendation to abolish it at their Jan. 18 board meeting.
With the village facing very challenging forestry issues, this is not the time to abolish the commission and bury it in the community design commission, whose stated functions are to:
1. Promote a higher level of building maintenance
2. Render decisions on sign variances
3. Recommend public improvements
4. Conduct anti-litter campaigns
5. Promote mini gardens
6. Recommend revisions to ordinances primarily related to signs and
7. Act as a resource in aesthetics and design to other government agencies
If the village board cares about the health of our urban forest, it will reinstate and strengthen the citizen forestry commission, shine a light on the achievements of past civic leaders like Dr. Wenzel, and rededicate ourselves to being strong stewards of our beloved trees. To promote the village as a “green and sustainable” leader while dismantling the forestry commission is hypocrisy.
Kathryn Jonas is an Oak Park resident, certified arborist and member of the village’s forestry commission since 2006.