After more than two years of chopping, cutting and sawing, the Oak Forest Public Works department finished removing every infested Ash tree from Oak Forest parkways Tuesday morning, Feb. 26.

In total, the city removed 1,849 trees from city parkways over the two-plus year span, with 500 trees removed by a contractor, said Public Works Director Troy Ishler.

“I'd like to personally thank the public works department for the outstanding job they've done on this,” Ishler said. “They've gone above and beyond what they normally do to handle such a huge project and they've done very well.”

During the Oak Forest city council meeting, Ishler announced that since all the trees were removed, the next phase of the project—stumping and reforestation—was well underway.

“Now we have to worry about stumping and reforestation,” Islher said. “We've got about 100 more of those to finish and then we have to worry about reforestation, about planting.”

The city previously earmarked $20,000 for reforestation, which was attained through a grant. The money could cover up to 200 trees for planting along parkways.

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