Parkway trees felled by the June tornado to be replaced by Naperville
Naperville plans to work with residents to replace the 230 parkway trees downed by the June 20 EF-3 tornado.
It’s been nearly a month since the storm, and the city’s Department of Public Works crews are still hauling away remnants of trees planted along the parkways between the street and sidewalk.
Naperville spokeswoman Linda LaCloche said with most of the trees now removed, they’ll next focus on getting rid of the remaining stumps in the next few months.
While that’s done, plans are being made to replace all of the destroyed trees either this fall or in spring 2022 as part of the city’s parkway tree program, LaCloche said.
While typically the city’s parkway tree program requires residents share the cost of a parkway tree that needs to be replaced — the $330 price split 50/50 between the city and property owner — it’s expected the city will foot the whole bill in this situation, LaCloche said.
“We anticipate asking the City Council during our fall budget process to absorb the cost and not require the resident share,” she said.
Despite volume of trees, the Public Works Department does not see the quantity as a detriment to the timeline, LaCloche said.
Residents are being given the option of choosing the type of tree they’d like planted in their home’s parkway. The only stipulation is the choice needs to be approved from Public Works’ forestry division, and anyone who doesn’t make a selection will be assigned a tree.
All stock will be delivered and planted by the city and comes with a one-year warranty.
The city’s spring list of authorized trees includes the shingle oak, Kentucky coffee tree, Hackberry, hybrid elm, tulip tree, plane-tree, Japanese tree lilac, silver linden, chinquapin oak, crabapple, American linden, red oak, swamp white oak and heritage oak.
There’s also a list of tree species that never will be authorized by the city’s forestry division. Among those are the ailanthus or Tree of Heaven; evergreen conifers such as a pine, spruce or fir; any variety of ash; Hawthorns, unless they’re thornless; Bradford pears; pin oaks; box elders; poplars; willows; cottonwoods; silver maples; and elms, unless they’re disease resistant.