WICKER PARK — "Tree removal season" has begun in Wicker Park and other city neighborhoods, as the city deals with such pests as the Emerald Ash Borer and other issues.
Two trees in front of Moonshine were infested with the insect came down this week. That came as another four trees across the street from the shuttered bar and restaurant were cut down because of impending construction for a new apartment building.
"I felt so sad. In winter, everything looks so empty and those trees were there for a long time. I don't like trees cut," said Jin Oh, owner of Jin's Cleaners at 1816 W. Division St., who watched city workers cut down two mature Ash trees in the parkway in front of Moonshine on Tuesday.
Reporter Alisa Hauser talks about the 30-some trees that will be removed in the neighborhood over the next few weeks:
A city worker on Wednesday said that the two ash trees in front of Moonshine were infested with the Emerald Ash Borer.
Molly Poppe, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation, said the city is currently in "tree removal season," which runs from mid-November through May.
"We are removing trees, about 10,000 each year on average from about 580,000 parkway trees, but working to have that urban canopy grow," Poppe said.
Moonshine's lost trees could potentially be replaced. In 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to plant 7,800 trees on parkways, a 25-percent increase over 2013, when the city planted 6,200 trees, Poppe said.
While the Bureau of Forestry will determine where any new trees will be planted, residents can request that a tree be planted by calling 311 or filling out an online form.
Across from Moonshine, Kevin Henning, president of Smithfield Construction Group, confirmed on Wednesday that his firm removed four trees, two on Division Steeet and two on Honore St., due to impending construction of a four-story, 33-unit apartment complex with retail and a restaurant on the ground-level.
"A strip of sidewalk will need to be fenced off during foundation work for the new building. We removed the trees to make enough room for the sidewalk to remain open for pedestrians when that happens," Henning said.
Henning, who obtained a city permit to remove the tees, said his firm plans to construct a new sidewalk and plant new parkway trees when the project, which has not yet determined a start date, is completed.
Elsewhere in Wicker Park, some 30 other trees are going to be removed in the coming days, about half of which are infested with Emerald Ash Borer, according to a list obtained by DNAinfo Chicago.
The other half of the trees — the largest, spanning 27-inches in diameter, at 1400 N. Honore St. — will be removed because of decay.
The Emerald Ash Borer, which may be smaller than a penny, has doomed hundreds of trees across the city. But the city, which added $2.6 million to the forestry department's budget in April 2013 to fight the insect, has been seeing improvement.
The city has general laborers whose sole job is to inoculate ash trees. Prior to 2013, the city only inoculated 18,000 ash trees over a five-year period. Over the last two years, with a dedicated workforce, it has inoculated over 60,000 trees, officials say.
Poppe said that the survival rate is 90 percent for the 18,000 trees that had been previously treated.
Of the approximately 580,000 trees along the city's streets and sidewalks, nearly 85,000 of them are ash trees at risk of being infested with the Emerald Ash Borer, which eats trees from the inside out, leaving them brittle and unsteady.
The cost to inoculate a tree is $46, compared with $1,000 to remove and replace a tree, city officials said.
Trees that are scheduled to be removed because they are either dead, decaying, or suffering from Emerald Ash Borer infestation, are near the following addresses:
1335 N. Milwaukee Ave; 1341 N. Milwaukee Ave; 1361 N. Milwaukee Ave; 1369 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 1454 N. Milwaukee Ave; 1455 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 1400 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 1539 N. Milwaukee Ave., 1573 N. Milwaukee Ave.;
1337 N. Paulina St., 1345 N. Paulina St., 1357 N. Paulina St.; 1402 N. Paulina St.; 1404 N. Paulina St.;
1253 N. Marion Court;; 1400 N. Honore St.; 1963 W. Evergreen Ave.; 1442 N. Elk Grove Ave.; ; 1824 W. Division St.; 1233 N. Damen Ave.; 1906 W. Crystal St.; 1936 W. Crystal St.; 1656 W. Blackhawk St.
1734 W. Pierce Ave.; 1743 W. Pierce Ave; 1745 W. Pierce Ave.
1925 W. Schiller St.; 1933 W. Schiller St; 1934 W. Schiller St.;
1449 N. Wicker Park Ave.
1243 N. Wolcott Ave.; 1206 N. Wolcott Ave.
Contributing: Heather Cherone
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