LOGAN SQUARE — Twenty new trees were added to Humboldt Boulevard over the weekend as part of Logan Square’s first neighborhoodwide tree survey and inventory.
The new trees were planted Saturday between Armitage and Shakespeare avenues, in part to combat an expected decline in the neighborhood’s tree population on Logan Boulevard due to invasive species like the emerald ash borer.
If findings from an ongoing tree survey by Logan Square Preservation hold true, Logan Square could wind up needing a third of its trees replaced over the next few years, according to LSP president Andrew Schneider. But Logan Boulevard in particular could take a hit as the survey has found that at least three whole blocks of the historic through-lanes are lined with ash trees.
"If the boulevards define the neighborhood, then the trees define the boulevard," Schneider said. “We’re concerned to see that so many of the trees that define the neighborhood [are in danger]. We’re disturbed particularly to see so many ash trees.”
Saturday's planting along Humboldt Blvd follows the planting of 30 trees on that same stretch in October 2014 and was headed up once again by Angela Larsen of Logan Square Preservation.
The removal and replacement of trees in the neighborhood comes with an aesthetic, environmental, financial and social cost, she said.
Logan Square Preservation secured about $26,000 in grants through Openlands and the National Trust for Historic Preservation for the local planting, according to Larsen, who wrote the proposals for both. The grant money covered all aspects of the planting and study, which wrapped up late last year.
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