Ways to Support County Park Tree Planting in 2023

If you love Milwaukee County Parks and their many trees and wooded areas, there are a few ways you can help the parks system in its fight against deforestation and the Emerald Ash Borer.

The parks system has an estimated 1.5 million trees, and in the past two decades the system has taken down more than 25,000 infested ash trees. The parks department’s forestry team now spends a significant amount of time identifying and removing trees infested with the bug.

“Often it is most effective to remove all infested trees in a park at once, rather than coming back and only removing a few at a time,” the department said in a report submitted to the county board. “As such, a park may have 50 or more highly visible trees removed in a very short timeframe.”

The process of replanting trees is also more involved than sticking seeds in the ground. Forestry staff has to consider whether the ground is suitable for replanting and whether nearby trees will soon need removal, potentially damaging younger trees’ roots; the forestry team often looks to stagger tree plantings so that a park isn’t filled with trees all of the same age and species.

The team has been focusing on removing trees in high-traffic areas of the parks because compromised trees can lose large limbs or come toppling down. The department expects to be finished with its tree removal by 2030. It’s working to replenish these lost trees, but this work is slower going that taking them down. And this is where the public can be of help.

The department is stretched thin financially and in the way of staff. But a program created in 2020 allows parks to accept tree donations to add to what the department has already budgeted. What’s more, the department accepts volunteers to help with the planting of 1,000 or more trees each fall.

Community Tree Program

The Community Tree Program was created in 2020 to encourage public donations supporting the parks system’s tree-planting efforts. There were donations of $7,000 in 2020 and $6,500 in 2021, though none in 2022. Taken together, these donations paid for the planting of 50 mature trees in county parks.

The trees purchased by parks are not like the saplings and tree whips you can find at your local plant shop. The trees parks purchases have already reached maturity, having been raised in a nursery for several years, and are more likely to survive planting in an urban park. This accounts for the trees’ price tag.

The typical size of a donation to the Community Tree Program ranges from $2,000 to $6,000, according to the department, which is enough to support the planting of at least eight trees. The donations go toward the delivery and installation of the tree, as well as any planting medium, like mulch, that’s needed to get it into the ground. Parks staff identify a location and the appropriate tree species.

Plantings always occur in the fall, which facilitates root development and doesn’t require as much watering in the months that follow planting as the tree is not having to deal with hot summer temperatures, according to parks.

Volunteer

Each year, the parks department is on the lookout for volunteers that can help with the annual fall plantings of more than 1,000 trees. Beyond that, it also accepts volunteers who can help parks staff water and monitor trees planted during the past years. Email the department at parkspartnerships@milwaukeecountywi.gov if interested.

Local parks friends groups also periodically run fundraising drives.