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July’s Tornadoes Felled 6,500 Trees in Chicago and Damaged Thousands More, Bureau of Forestry Reports

Tree damage in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood following strong storms, July 16, 2024. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)Tree damage in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood following strong storms, July 16, 2024. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

In his 36 years with Chicago's Bureau of Forestry, Malcolm Whiteside has never seen anything like the extensive damage to the city's trees caused by last month's tornadoes.

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"This was so spread out and so many communities were hit," said Whiteside, who oversees forestry as a deputy commissioner within the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

Speaking at Thursday's meeting of the Urban Forestry Advisory Board, Whiteside gave an update on the blow the storms delivered: The city received 9,000 reports of tree emergencies and a whopping 6,500 of those involved entire trees felled. Some blocks had multiple trees downed, uprooting sidewalks and crashing onto houses.

Forestry crews spent two full weeks clearing the damage, Whiteside said, adding that it was his workers alone — without assistance from outside contractors — responding to calls, though they did borrow equipment from other city departments. 

"I have 15 new people," he said. "It was an eye-opener for them."

Efforts were slowed in some instances by a quirk in Chicago's 3-1-1 system, where people were entering requests for "tree debris cleanup" — a lower priority category — instead of "tree emergency," which indicates a more serious issue in need of immediate response, Whiteside said. 

One unfortunate side effect of the storm damage is that it's made people wary of trees at the very time the city is ramping up efforts to plant more in response to climate change.

"After all these trees that fell over, people are saying, 'Oh no, I don't want to see another tree,'" Whiteside said.

In 2023, forestry shifted from a policy of trimming trees based on residents' requests to a block-by-block grid approach. It's estimated it will take crews five years to get around to all of the city's street trees — many of which haven't been touched in 10 to 15 years — but once this schedule of routine maintenance is established, Whiteside said the result should be healthier trees more resilient to storms.

He acknowledged that "not everybody can wait" for forestry to get around to their block, which is why 3-1-1 has added a "tree inspection" category to its list of requests, as well as tree emergency. 

Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 |  [email protected]


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