Parks System Losing Trees Faster Than It Can Plant Them

Cut down trees. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Parks System, with 15,000 acres and approximately 1.5 million trees, represents the greatest preserve of natural areas in Milwaukee County.

But over the past century, the tree canopy in Milwaukee County has taken a hit from invasive species, Dutch Elm Disease and the Emerald Ash Borer. Parks and its Forestry Division work to maintain and restore the system’s trees and forested areas. But it has become a war of attrition that they are currently losing.

“We lose far more trees than we’re able to keep up with,” Deputy Parks Director James Tarantino told the Milwaukee County Board’s Budget Committee Friday. “But we have a concerted effort to replant trees and restore our tree canopy with an eye towards equity in the park system.”

The committee endorsed an amendment that would add a handful of park projects to the 2024 county budget. Among them is a relatively small allocation of $50,000 for tree planting.

Tarantino told supervisors that the allocation would allow Parks to plant an additional 350 trees in 2024. County Executive David Crowley‘s recommended budget included $70,000 for tree planting, which would cover 500 trees.

The Forestry Division removes more than 2,000 trees a year, on average. And over the past two decades, more than 25,000 trees infested with Emerald Ash Borer have been taken down. Parks estimates that it will have removed all trees infected with the Ash Borer by 2030.

Sup. Shawn Rolland drafted an amendment to add $50,000 in funding for reforestation but pulled his own support for it after the larger packaged amendment included tree funding.

“I think it is something that we should keep an eye on,” Rolland said. “If we are losing more and more trees due to weather or invasive species, then we may want to increase this budget in the future, just to make sure that we’re keeping pace with the environment.”

When reintroducing trees to a system that has been thinned, the trees are deliberately planted slower than they were removed. This helps to maintain the diversity of the tree canopy, Peter Bratt, Parks’ director of skilled trades has previously explained.

Reforestation, unfortunately, is not as simple as scattering seeds throughout the parks. Parks’ forestry professionals analyze existing local root systems and nearby tree species before deciding when, what and how many trees to plant. Parks also doesn’t plant trees from seeds. It plants saplings that have spent some time growing in a nursery.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) is also planting trees in Milwaukee and surrounding counties. The trees are useful for managing stormwater runoff. The sewerage district plans to plant approximately six million trees over the next 10 years in an area that stretches almost from Fond du Lac to Kenosha.

Milwaukee County, in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools and the City of Milwaukee, recently secured a $12 million federal grant to expand its tree planting and related job training efforts. But local and federal officials are still sorting out exactly what programs will be funded, given that the grant awarded was smaller than what was requested.