Some new youngsters have moved into the Timbers Estates subdivision in Tinley Park.
Saplings of honey locust, crab apple, red sunset maple and swamp white oak, all just a few feet tall, are sprouting from parkways where dozens of mature ash trees once stood.
It’s a scene being repeated throughout the Southland because a beetle known as the emerald ash borer has decimated tens of thousands of ash trees — leaving some subdivisions virtually treeless and towns shouldering hefty costs to plant new ones.
Having learned a hard lesson, towns are planting a wider variety of trees in case another insect or disease should attack a particular species in the future…Please click here to read Mike Nolan’s story in the Tribune/Daily Southtown.