After 15 years battling Dutch elm disease, the emerald ash borer and working to maintain and grow Oak Park’s “urban forest,” Village Forestry Superintendent Jim Semelka is headed to the private sector.
Semelka, 59, said in a phone interview that after deciding in 2013 to retire, he checked what was available in the private sector “just to see what was out there.” Before long he had offers from two organizations, he said.
“I was totally surprised by a couple of offers I got,” he said, adding that he ultimately took a position with Homer Tree Care in Lockport. Semelka will help manage municipal and government contracts in his new position, which could occasionally land him back in Oak Park.
As forestry superintendent in Oak Park, Semelka oversaw five employees. He spearheaded efforts to battle Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer and to diversify Oak Park’s forest of 18,000 to 20,000 trees.
He said about five years ago he initiated a program to increase the space between trees from 35 feet to 50 feet on Oak Park’s parkways.
“One of the things that dawned on me is that we tend to plant our trees too close together,” he said. “When they are too close together, a number of things happen. Trees compete for resources; they don’t cooperate. There’s only so much out there in terms of sunlight and rainfall and things trees need to grow.”
Despite his years as a municipal arborist (he came to Oak Park from La Grange), he could never find a rational explanation for the standard of 35-foot spacing.
“A lot of towns have that,” he said. “I wanted to move it out to 50 feet and we did, but it was a bit of struggle. The thing I was trying to stress is the need to stop looking at the sheer number of trees and concentrate more on the canopy cover. I was trying to get a good, healthy canopy.”
David Powers, village spokesman, said that some opposed the move to increase the space between the trees, but noted that “he fought hard” for the change.
“He took a lot of personal grief over that,” Powers said.
Semelka said work in urban forestry can be somewhat frustrating because it takes decades to see the results.
Powers said the village is still looking for a successor for the position. The forestry superintendent position has a starting salary of $70,223 and includes, among other duties, “tree pruning, removal, planting, watering, feeding and treatment and clearing fallen trees from the public paths and parkways.”
Powers said the position requires a very specific skill set, adding that urban forestry faces challenges such as dealing with a hostile environment full of vehicles, pollution and chemicals from melting snow that are damaging to trees.