Chicago-area environmental activists seek to protect region’s trees

Standing before the Geneva City Council, June Maher held up an edited version of the city’s logo. Instead of one with a prominent tree in the middle, it contained a stump.

She called the west suburb, “Stump City USA,” saying that city and county leaders allowed trees that are hundreds of years old to be cut down through inaction.

“In my heart of hearts, I do feel that leadership could have prevented this,” she said at the September meeting. “I’m very disappointed in the City Council and administration for not stepping up and doing the things that they claim to honor in their Arbor Day proclamations and their Tree City USA and all that … hypocrisy.”

For years, Maher and a group of activists have tried to stop the removal of bur oak trees at a proposed industrial park development in Kane County near Geneva, contacting local elected officials, starting a petition and even climbing on machinery. They say almost all of the historic trees were cut down in the two weeks after Labor Day, calling it a “colossal failure” for the “Tree City USA” community.

While Geneva and Kane County officials say they had no legal authority to intervene, activists hope their efforts will prompt counties and towns in the Chicago area to enact strong tree preservation ordinances, something experts believe can help protect the region’s trees and the resources they provide.

Brian Maher, June Maher’s husband, said he first heard about proposed development near his home in 2018 from Midwest Industrial Funds, a real estate investment company based in Oak Brook. After meeting with city staff, the 65-year-old West Chicago resident said he thought the development wouldn’t impact the bur oak trees.

MIF wants to annex 211 acres between the intersection of Route 38 and Kautz Road in unincorporated Kane County, according to the city of Geneva’s website. The developer plans to build about eight buildings with associated stormwater facilities, roads and wetland areas on the vacant land.

MIF said the project would provide “long-term benefits” for Geneva, including improvements for the extension of Kautz and dedicating about one acre for the construction of an electric substation.

However, this spring, Maher said he overlaid an aerial view of the planned development with a satellite image, noticing that one of the buildings would sit on a southern portion of the woods. For Maher, this finding was cause for alarm, starting his and his wife’s public outcry. They helped create a petition that has more than 4,500 signatures and frequently spoke at city and county government meetings.

Even though the site is being considered for annexation — the process of bringing a property within a city — it’s currently in unincorporated Kane County, not Geneva. While Geneva has a tree preservation ordinance, which requires tree removal permits on private parcels of land that are more than 1.5 acres in most instances, Kane County does not.

On Sept. 5, Maher said he woke up to the sounds of machinery, and headed out to MIF’s property where he saw employees cutting down the trees, which he alleged violated their permit. Maher sat on the cutting machinery before the Kane County sheriff’s office ordered him and other protesters to leave.

Maher said dozens of trees were “destroyed” in a wooded area of the property, including some of the bur oaks, which are large, deciduous trees native to the Midwest with massive trunks. In a permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, obtained through a records request, MIF also identified red oak, American basswood, honeysuckle, wild black cherry and other species.

“I never thought I was going to be an activist, but you know what, I just climbed up on the machine,” Maher said. “It only stopped the cutting for a couple of hours … but it just felt like the right thing for us to do.”

The Arny Corps issued a permit for the project in June 2020, allowing for work that impacts wetlands and soil erosion. MIF is only able to clear trees greater than 3 inches in diameter between Oct. 1 and March 31 to avoid damaging the homes of endangered northern long-eared bats, according to one of the permit’s special conditions in an authorization letter.

The permit expired after three years, although MIF was allowed to finish the project without further authorization as long as it complied with the terms, according to the letter.

MIF did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns said the city has “no authority, no jurisdiction and no leverage” to intervene in a project on private property. He said when MIF applies for annexation, the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission will consider the request, and can advance it to the City Council for consideration. Until then, Burns said the council is “prohibited from expressing our own opinions for risk of violating the due diligence policies.”

“Despite demands by some folks that the city abandon its principles of good governance and insert itself, we have been crystal clear that the city of Geneva has absolutely no jurisdiction and no authority in this matter as the land in question is located in unincorporated Kane County,” Burns said.

Corinne Pierog, chair of the Kane County Board, told the Tribune that the county doesn’t “interfere” with the annexation process. At the end of September, she said she visited the development, and saw that many trees were clear cut but that some bur oaks remained. She said there will be a conservation area toward the north end of the property.

Neither Pierog or Burns said they’ve had contact with MIF about the project.

“I do hope that this company as well as other future companies that come into Kane County, we encourage them to be good corporate citizens,” she said. “We’ve got a delicate balance here in Kane County that we’re fighting very hard to preserve the organic part of Kane County — the farms, the open space, the forest preserves — blended in with new opportunities for industry.”

Finding no recourse with city or county governments, Rachael Kay Albers felt she had no other choice than to eulogize the trees, waiting nearly six hours at a September Kane County Board meeting for a chance to speak.

“I’m here today to honor the memory of our 300-plus-year-old trees here in Kane County that were felled last week by Midwest Industrial Funds,” she said dressed in a mourning veil and all-black ensemble.

“These majestic oaks, once the guardians of this land, have fallen victim to the relentless march of bulldozers and concrete and trucks and warehouses,” she said. “Their branches provided shade to generations of children. Their leaves whispered stories of seasons past and their roots carved deep into the earth, anchoring them firmly to this place.”

The situation in Kane County isn’t uncommon, according to Lydia Scott, director of the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, a group established in 2014 by the Morton Arboretum and Openlands. She said one of the challenges with tree preservation and development ordinances is determining whether a city or county has jurisdiction when a project is in an unincorporated area. Most counties in the Chicago region don’t have preservation ordinances, she said.

“So that’s why it’s this constant vigilance on the part of residents to keep track of what’s going on in their community so that they can express their opinions on those activities that are taking place, and make sure that those policies that are in place reflect their goals and their visions for their community,” Scott said.

After what happened with the bur oaks, Pierog said Kane County is in the early stages of developing a tree protection policy, anticipating it will take about a year to enact. She said it might contain items such as corporations planting two or three trees for each one they cut down, and special consideration for historic trees.

“A 300-, 200-year-old tree is an incredible monument to history, and one that really should be honored,” she said.

Mavis Bates, chair of Kane County Board’s Energy and Environmental Committee, said the board is looking at policies in other counties and municipalities, and trying to “take the best from all of those other protections for the trees.” She said it’s “critical” that trees remain standing and that an ordinance is passed so the county has legal standing in the future. Bates attended the Sept. 5 protest.

The level of regulation within tree preservation ordinances can vary widely, according to Scott. Some are more minor, she said, such as if someone damages a publicly owned tree they have to pay a fine up to regulating the removal of trees on private property, what she calls the “gold standard.”

For example, she said Chicago has an ordinance regulating tree removal on public property whereas Evanston is more restrictive. Evanston’s City Council voted last month to amend the tree preservation ordinance, requiring residents to pay a fee and obtain a permit before removing certain sized trees on their property.

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Many North Shore communities enacted private property ordinances, she said, after the actor known as Mr. T cut down more than 100 trees at his Lake Forest estate in 1987.

Scott said trees provide important resources that people are becoming “increasingly dependent on” as temperatures skyrocket during the summer months due to climate change. A Tribune investigation found that the city planted more trees, which can help cool neighborhoods, in wealthier, whiter areas during the past decade. She said trees can also help mitigate air pollution and benefit people’s mental and physical health.

It’s important to preserve oak ecosystems in particular, Scott said, because only about 17% of the region’s original ecosystems are left, and it takes generations for them to grow.

“As we become increasingly more impacted by climate change, and increased temperatures and increased air quality problems, we’re going to rely more on these nature based solutions to help correct and offset those impacts,” Scott said.

For Albers, one of the Geneva activists, protecting trees boils down to the song “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell. She said she doesn’t want paradise to be paved to put up a parking lot — or a warehouse.

“We’re not talking about quote-unquote politics here,” she said. “We’re talking about our lives. We’re talking about the air that our children breathe. We’re talking about the trees that blow on a hot summer day.”

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