Tree City USA Receives Arbor Day Foundation Award

Arlington Heights has been a Tree City USA designee for more than 20 years and now it can boast its first ever Growth Award from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Village Forrester Dru Sabatello presented the award to Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene Mulder recently. It is the first time the village has received the award from the foundation. The Growth Award highlights innovative programs and projects and increased commitment resources for urban forestry, the foundation's website states. 

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has attacked ash trees throughout the region for years, first surfacing in 2006 in Naperville. The EAB was found in Arlington Heights in 2009 and the village has been hit hard. There were 13,000 ash trees on village property and countless more on private property.

To date, about 1,000 trees have been cut down, said Ashley Ellwanger, Arlington Heights forester technician.

“There are a lot of stumps around,” she said.

Arlington Heights has a program, Emerald Ash Borer 50/50 Cost Share , which allows residents to be reimbursed 50 percent of treatment costs up to $50 per parkway tree if treated with TREE-age, Ellwanger said.

So far paid out 90,000 to resident for the cost share tree replacement of ash trees, she said. The program continues until October.

There are 1,800 trees being treated, Ellwanger said. The challenge of treating trees is the treatment must go through its vascular system but EAB damages that system, she said. The disease must be caught early for treatment to be effective.

A reason Arlington Heights received the Growth Award, is for its policy of replacing each ash tree, Sabatello said. He does not know of any other community in the region that is doing the same thing, he said.

While the village is leading the way in the fight against EAB, staff is still trying to get the word out about the disease and the cost share program.

“We still get calls asking what EAB is,” Ellwanger said.

As part of the ongoing education, Sabatello will be speaking about EAB at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 23 at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Denton Ave.