After emerald ash borer scourge, campaign under way to replant lost trees

Lydia Scott logged more than 600 miles in her hybrid SUV last year, identifying tree species, measuring them and estimating their maturity on green patches from Chicago’s South Side to far-flung Harvard.

She is both foot soldier and field general in the most comprehensive tree census of any large U.S. metropolitan area. The review, which also used aerial laser scanning, found that more than 157 million trees are growing in the seven-county Chicago region, a number that translates to about 21 percent of the area covered in trees and shrubs — well below the national average of 27 percent…Please click here to read Ted Gregory’s story in the Tribune.