Parks Plants 1,800 New Trees in 2023

New trees planted in Gordon Park. Photo by Milwaukee County Parks.

With tree planting season over, Milwaukee County Parks is celebrating having planted more than 1,800 trees in 2023. But it will take more to avoid losing the park system’s tree canopy.

Tree planting for the department is largely replanting and reforestation work. Invasive species and diseases have led to a rate of tree loss in the system that the department can’t currently keep up with. The department reported that it planted 1,846 trees in 2023, bringing it closer to to the approximately 2,500 trees removed annually.

The planting in 2023 was bolstered by friends groups and other organizations, which helped the department plant nearly 300 trees. Some of the larger planting efforts by friends groups led to 31 trees in Gordon Park, 26 trees in Pulaski Cudahy Park and 31 trees in Humboldt Park.

One pest in particular, the Emerald Ash Borer, has driven a significant amount of canopy loss across the system. The beetle burrows into trees and eats away at wood beneath the bark. Once a tree is invaded by the bug it typically dies within four years. The bug has only been in the U.S. for a little over 20 years, and in Milwaukee County since 2011.

Trees play a critical role in urban areas, reducing stormwater runoff, noise and the urban heat island effect and capturing carbon. And Parks is responsible for an estimated 1.5 million trees spread across approximately 15,000 acres in Milwaukee County.

The Milwaukee County Board included extra funding for tree planting efforts in the 2024 budget. But the funds will not be enough to close the gap between the rate of tree loss and tree replanting. The department’s resources do place a limit on replanting. But, in general, replanting is a slower, more deliberate process than removal. In 2021, the department planted approximately 1,400 and removed more than 2,500.

The county’s forestry team has had to focus on tree removal in recent years, as it deals with the fallout from the Emerald Ash Borer. Trees being killed by the beetle can pose a safety risk when they are in park areas with significant traffic. As the trees die, large branches and tree limbs can break off, or the trunk can catastrophically collapse. The team works all year long to identify trees that for removal. Parks estimates that by 2030 all ash trees in the system will be removed.

Much of the tree planting in 2023 was conducted by the department’s Natural Areas Team, which planted 1,486 trees. These Parks workers also take on more than just tree planting. They remove invasive species, plant native plants and conduct plant and wildlife surveys.

In 2023, the team removed invasive species from 189 acres, and conducted plant and wildlife research over thousands of acres. The effort led the team to identify 47 new populations of state or federally protected species on county parkland.

Parks partnered with the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools in securing a $12 million urban forestry grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant award is being finalized and the department expects to accept the funds in early 2024.

The department also plans to continue growing the replanting efforts across the system next year. The $50,000 in additional funding allocated by the county board will help it plant an extra 350 trees in 2024.