Trees are essential for a beautiful, livable environment and for human well-being. Yet the tree canopy has declined in quantity and quality across the seven-county Chicago region. Simply put, Chicago and the suburbs need more trees -- and more tree champions.
By Jennifer Billock
When the emerald ash borer swarmed through Chicagoland, the pest took with it 13 million ash trees, decimating that part of the urban forest. The Morton Arboretum declared it a catastrophic loss. Those ash trees accounted for 20 percent of all the street trees in the city proper, let alone the extended suburbs.
Researchers from The Morton Arboretum and Duke University have solved a mystery that has long shrouded our understanding of white oaks: where did they come from?
Dr. Gerard T. Donnelly, President and CEO of The Morton Arboretum near Chicago, has received the J. Sterling Morton Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Arbor Day Foundation. This prestigious award recognizes an outstanding individual for positive impact on the environment due to lifelong commitment to tree-planting and conservation at national and international levels.
By Doug George
The Morton Arboretum in Lisle counted its 1 millionth visitor on Monday, a new attendance record for the park in a single year. The visitors, the Donoghue family of Oak Park, were welcomed by staff in a celebration.
One million total visitors to date in 2015 tops the arboretum's previous attendance record of 934,000, set in 2014.
Sue Dibble - Daily Herald
Murphy Westwood knows when most people hear the term "endangered species" they're more likely to think of the giant panda or ivory-billed woodpecker than the paperbark maple or Georgia oak.
But Westwood, a tree conservation specialist at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, is working to raise awareness that trees need protection, too.
