Carpentersville wins grant to replace some ash trees
Carpentersville has secured a grant for more than $14,000, allowing the village to buy trees to replace some of the trees that the emerald ash borer has destroyed.
The grant came from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and it will reimburse the village for the $14,424 leaders plan to spend on up to 50 replacement trees, said Sean McGovern, assistant to the director of public works.
“We intend to use (the money) to plant trees throughout the village both in parkways, Carpenter Park, possibly other parks,” said McGovern, who helps coordinate the village's Emerald Ash Borer Program.
To date, the emerald ash borer has destroyed between 2,300 and 2,400 trees in Carpentersville, McGovern said. Of those, just 840 trees have been cut down — and not replaced.
“We just simply don't have the capability of taking down some of the larger trees which you see on the east side and the eastern most part of the west side,” McGovern said.
All told, the village has replaced fewer than 100 damaged ash trees, McGovern said.
The trees the village plans to purchase are from 11 different species. They include the common bald cypress, the common hackberry and the American beech.
In an effort to diversify the tree stock, authorities will plant no more than 10 percent of any one tree variety.
The village's tree replacement program, meanwhile, continues to grow steadily.
In addition to the grant, village officials last year set up a program that reimburses homeowners $50 for every tree the resident pays to remove.
The new tree plantings are expected to take place this spring and next fall, McGovern said.
The village will continue to seek additional grant money to fund its tree replacement program.