The 3,335 trees growing on the village-owned parkways in Forest Park are an element in the community’s infrastructure as important as the town’s streets and sewers.
That is a belief held by both Jessica Voogd, Forest Park’s commissioner of public property, and Sal Stella, director of public works, and it is the reason both work to diligently follow up on the town’s Urban Forest Management Plan adopted in 2022.
Voogd said that, after the 2019 election, she met with John Doss, who was the public works director at the time, and worked to become a member of Tree City, USA because the designation helps the village qualify for grants, one of which helped Forest Park pay for the survey upon which the management plan was based.
As a result, Stella now knows the location of every tree in Forest Park, its approximate age, its species and its health.
The two officials maintain that a healthy urban forest decreases energy costs for business and home owners by reducing what is known as the “urban heat island effect.”
“On a summer day while driving on Circle Avenue,” Stella suggested, “look up and you will see that the street is completely covered by the canopy created by leaves of the trees. I’m sure the canopy is lowering the temperature on the street by 10 degrees.”
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and create oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis. They help to capture storm water and decrease runoff. Trees improve our physical and mental well-being, create habitat for wildlife and increase property values.
One of the goals of the management plan is to increase the diversity of species in the inventory.
“Right now,” he said, “70% of our trees are maples. If, God forbid, a disease appears that affects maples, like the Dutch Elm Disease affected elms, we could lose almost three-quarters of our trees.
Among the 71 different species present in Forest Park’s inventory, the top five are Maple (1,716), Linden (393), Honey Locust (262), Elm (163) and Callery Pear (111). In order to achieve a healthier mix, Stella will not plant Maples on an available space on a parkway even if a resident requests one.
Another mandate in the management plan is to keep up with tree trimming. Stella has determined that it is more cost efficient to hire Davis Tree Care to do the trimming on an ongoing basis
Every Monday and Friday, residents can observe a red Department of Public Works (DPW) truck pulling a wood chipper and cruising the streets to pick up fallen branches or branches that residents have moved from their yards to the parkway in front of their homes. They will even pick up and chip discarded Christmas trees after the holidays.
Another part of the plan is to replace dead trees with new plantings and fill in empty spaces on the parkways with new trees. Stella said his crew plants 20-25 trees in both the spring and the fall.
“We’re doing a touch-up on Madison Street,” Stella noted, “including the removal of the Locust trees, which have grown so big that their trunks are popping out of the metal grates and replacing them with decorative ornamental trees which don’t grow so large.”
Urban forest maintenance is an often overlooked element in our village’s curb appeal, even downtown.