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Effingham reviews 85-page urban forestry plan: inventory, removals and a 20‑year canopy goal

City of Effingham City Council · November 4, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Public works staff presented a final urban forestry management plan (supported by a Morton Arboretum grant) that inventories ~1,902 public trees, identifies 201 removals (21 priority), nearly 2,600 planting sites and proposes a four-year cyclical pruning program with an estimated annual operating cost of $60k–$70k.

Public works director Harmon presented the city's final urban forestry management plan, developed after an $50,000 Morton Arboretum grant and work by Great Lakes Urban Forestry. The plan inventories public trees, assigns priority removal and planting recommendations and proposes a multi-decade management strategy.

Harmon said the consultant counted about 1,902 public trees across city property and right-of-way, representing roughly 96 species, and estimated the standing value of the tree infrastructure at about $4.2 million with annual benefits of approximately $63,680. "They counted…

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