Russell Gardens seeks tree planting effort

Joe Nikic

After a tree disease caused the removal of 40 silver maple trees in the Village of Russell Gardens over the last five years, the village is looking to begin a replanting effort to replenish its foliage.

Village of Russell Gardens Mayor Steve Kirschner said at Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting he wanted to plant new trees to replace the removed ones and beautify the village.

“We intend to be planting trees over the next four or five months on some of our resident’s properties,” Kirschner said. “We are going to be planting somewhere between 25 and 30 trees in the village.”

He also said the village has easement agreements to plant trees up to 25 feet towards the sidewalk from the center of each village street, meaning trees can be planted on resident properties.

“The village has a right to plant trees basically on the lawns of residents’ properties,” Kirschner said.

While residents have told him they enjoy the aesthetics and implications of planting new trees, he said, some have requested to have trees planted on other properties rather than their own.

“Obviously, that’s not workable and that’s not how we operate,” Kirschner said.

He said the village would take four to five months to replace the removed silver maple trees, but would actively replace all other removed trees in the future.

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