Trees are worth saving

It takes mere months to build a housing subdivision, but it takes more than a century for a native White Oak to grow mature, strong, and irreplaceable.

Currently, a unique 32-acre wooded parcel along 75th Street — owned by the DuPage Water Commission — is under contract to Pulte Homes for a 94-unit duplex subdivision called Naperville Ridge. If approved by the Naperville City Council, this project will clear-cut 850 mature trees, destroying a vital, functioning ecological sanctuary.

We must consider the irreversible losses this development brings to our community. The site houses legacy White, Red, and Bur Oaks — a keystone genus supporting over 500 local wildlife species. Pulte's plan slashes 338 of these high-quality trees. Furthermore, the property's Shagbark Hickories provide documented summer maternity roosts for the federally endangered Northern Long-eared Bat and the proposed endangered Tricolored Bat. Finally, the site's forested wetlands act as a natural sponge, absorbing stormwater to reduce regional flooding risks along 75th Street, while serving as a breeding ground for the state-threatened Black-Billed Cuckoo.

Once this ecosystem is fragmented and paved, its environmental protections and flood-mitigation benefits are gone forever. We can rebuild houses anywhere, but we can never rebuild an old-growth forest.

An upcoming Naperville City Council vote (date TBD) on annexation and development will decide the fate of this land. I urge readers — both Naperville residents and neighboring community members who value conservation — to email Mayor Wehrli and the City Council. Please ask them to protect our shared future by voting NO on the Naperville Ridge subdivision and YES to saving the 75th Street woods.

Cheing-Mei Suen, Naperville