Tree removal changing Libertyville landscape
The visual impact of an approved tree removal west of Butterfield Road in Libertyville has become evident as work continues to clear an abandoned nursery.
Crews were on site again Friday, as the landscape along the heavily traveled road south of Lake Street begins to change. Village officials in October approved a permit to remove an estimated 2,500 trees considered hazardous on 40 acres owned by the Catholic Bishop of Chicago.
The area is the site of a proposed 148-house development that has drawn community opposition. However, that is a separate matter currently under village review. A public hearing on that plan, known as Oak Trails, is scheduled for Jan. 9.
The land includes a former nursery that supplied trees for St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and Pine Meadow Golf Club. The archdiocese owns both properties and told the village the dead, dying and diseased trees needed to be removed regardless of any future development.
The start of the removal drew public attention and prompted Mayor Terry Weppler to post on a local Facebook page that he initially didn't believe the finding. However, an arborist hired by the village to review the report prepared for the archdiocese concurred with the hazardous condition of all but 38 trees and the need to remove them, he said.
Weppler said the trees were planted very close to each other and grew tall with minimal foliage except on top. Some of the trees have fallen and are leaning against other trees causing the danger. There also are several invasive buckthorn trees on the property.
Village approval of the tree removal permit "does not in any manner indicate approval of the proposed development," Weppler said in the post.
A required Illinois Department of Natural Resources review said trees should not be removed between April 1 and Oct. 14 to avoid affecting the state and federally endangered northern long-eared bat.