We depend on trees for life, and they depend on us for care and protection. If you love trees, The Morton Arboretum’s Community Trees Program can help you take a stewardship role right in your own neighborhood.

Established in 2002, the program serves 270 metropolitan communities extending the reach of the Arboretum well beyond its 1,700 acres. Edith Makra, the Arboretum’s  Community Trees Advocate, partners with homeowners, civic leaders, public officials, volunteers and green industry professionals to help:

· Create tree protection ordinances and action plans in response to drought, disease and insect invasion.
· Bring conservation programs into schools and educate the future stewards of the earth.
· Celebrate Arbor Day with tree-planting ceremonies and other events.
· Achieve “Tree City” status and preserve neighborhood character by balancing growth with existing trees.
· Develop guidelines to protect trees and ensure their optimal care, long-term health and sustainability.

The Morton Arboretum rallies for trees everyday. With your help, we can do even more to create a greener, healthier and more beautiful world.

To make a gift in support of the Arboretum’s work in this very important area, or if you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Mazur, Annual Giving Manager, at 630-719-7948 or e-mail: emazur@mortonarb.org.

Do you know about the  Arboretum’s new “Adopt-a-Tree” program?

This plan does the deep thinking for civic leaders who make decisions about our communities. The planning process is now in an intense phase of listening to the thoughts and opinions of anyone who wants to participate. I am bringing this to your attention in hopes that you speak up about your interest in robust a urban and community forest for the region.

CMAP is launching “Invent the Future,” a series of interactive activities that will make it easy for residents in the seven-county region to contribute their ideas for the future of the economy, transportation, housing, land use, open space, the environment and other quality-of-life factors. Throughout the summer, CMAP will ask residents how they think the future region should look.

The Arboretum’s mission statement says that future should look greener. Our goal is to encourage the planting and conservation of trees and other plants for a green, healthier and more beautiful world.

You can share your thoughts in three ways:
1. CMAP is holding at least 50 community meetings through the beginning of September. There is one near you. But the most important one may be the session that will be held at The Morton Arboretum on August 27. Please come and talk about how important trees are to the quality of life. You can register here.

2. The CMAP website has a ton of information and also allows you to voice your opinion on key issues quickly. There are many opportunities on the website for further involvement. There are a series of strategy papers about key topics. A few overlap with trees and urban forestry. Feel free to comment on them.

3. Or, if you plan on enjoying a hot dog and an outdoor concert at any one of dozens on local community festivals in the region, stop by the interactive kiosks and make a difference without changing out of your flip flops and shorts.

This is important. And it will take a couple hours of your time. If we really want to have trees taken seriously as an important and valuable component of livable communities we have to speak up.

Tree advocates and professionals long for the day when trees are considered vital “green” infrastructure. This is a rare opportunity to try to put trees on par with storm water, transportation, housing and other considerations long considered more vital. The regional planners aren’t aware of how development and invasive pests affect the urban and community forest that affects our quality of life. Please forward this invitation. It won’t take too many of us to make some noise.

Need more convincing? Check out this link.

My favorite bumper sticker says, ”The world is run by those who show up.” Go!

Please let me know if you have a chance to participate in any way. I’d love to know about your experience. Let me know if you are especially interested and want to work with me further on GoTo 2040.

Edith Makra
Community Trees Advocate
The Morton Arboretum

Read more about the Arboretum’s Community Trees Program.

Since joining the staff of The Morton Arboretum five years ago, Makra has been an ally and educator to communities, homeowner associations and residents who are interested in and passionate about saving trees.

Makra works with a wide variety of Chicago-area municipalities helping them to draft tree preservation ordinances, advising home associations on landscape contracts and how to choose trees, and helping communities plan their Arbor Day celebrations. In addition, she has been in the forefront of the Illinois fight against the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB).

You’ll also want to check out Makra’s regular column addressing tree advocacy and her work – and yours – in our surrounding communities: “Out on a Limb.”

Makra, raised in the Chicago area, remembers visiting The Morton Arboretum as a child. Later, while a student at the College of DuPage, she spent three summers as an intern at the Arboretum and earned her degree in urban forestry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her first job as a professional arborist was with a tree-care company in the Northwestern suburbs. “That was literal tree hugging,” says Makra. “You get to know trees extremely well when you’re up there in the branches and holding on so you won’t fall!”

While working with an open space preservation group that wanted to encourage the planting of trees in Chicago, Makra was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune. Unfortunately, an error occurred and the profile ended up on the obituary page. Makra says, “Turns out that Mayor [Richard M.] Daley read the obituary page that day, and I was invited to meet with him!” She was soon hired to launch the Mayor’s Greenstreets Program. She worked hard and learned a lot. “It was a tremendous learning curve,” she recalls. “I was only 27 and politically green, but the Mayor was behind our work.”

Makra’s next position was as director of the state urban forest program in Massachusetts where she spent seven years before returning to Illinois and The Morton Arboretum.

Just a few months later, Makra found herself helping lead the fight against the emerald ash borer in Illinois. The EAB had decimated ash trees in Michigan and other states east of the Mississippi. Makra found that there was no one in Illinois in charge of defending the state’s ash trees against the pest. With the support of the Arboretum, she put together a team of about three dozen organizations that included mayor and manager conferences, state and federal agencies and professional organizations. The Illinois readiness plan for the EAB has been copied by at least five other states, says Makra, who now serves on the Governor’s Emerald Ash Borer Management & Science Advisory Panel. According to Makra, pictured here with Senator Dick Durbin (D, IL), Illinois (on her left) has lost about 2,000 ash trees to the EAB and additional losses are a foregone conclusion. “It is a very difficult insect to manage. The losses to communities will be significant.”

Makra also is interested and involved in the preservation of large, mature trees that too frequently are lost to development. “Large trees provide more shade, filter more pollutants from the air and capture more storm water than small ones.” Makra is active in advising homeowner associations, like the Glen Ellyn Woods Homeowners Association, on what kinds of trees to plant. Recently, she also has worked with the St. Charles Tree Commission presenting to their city council on the value and economic benefit of trees and helping to draw up the community’s first tree preservation ordinance.

Makra, a certified arborist, frequently represents the Arboretum as a spokesperson and is a strong advocate for its mission. You may have met her in your own community or even seen her on TV where she has made appearances on behalf of the Arboretum on local news and talk shows.

Portions of this story previously appeared in Morton Arboretum press releases and the Daily Herald.

Check out another “Tree Hugger” - Andrew L. Hipp, PhD, Plant Systematist and Herbarium Curator.