St. Charles lost almost all of its ash trees, and the city counted them on the way out. Its Urban Forestry Management Plan records that the city “removed approximately 4,250 Ash trees since the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) was first identified within city limits nearly a decade ago.” Then came the audit: “only 245 standing Ash trees still exist in City parkways.” That is the shape of the work here. So tree service St. Charles owners need now is mostly about what replaced the ash, and whether it was planted well.
What Grew Back, And The Risk Nobody Talks About
The city’s own inventory tells the next chapter. The tree population “totals 18,924 active standing trees” across 94 species. However, the top of that list is lopsided: Norway maple at 2,880 trees, or 16.24 percent of everything.
That is the ash lesson repeating in slow motion. One species at sixteen percent is a concentration, and concentrations are what emerald ash borer exploited. Meanwhile the Urban Forestry Division manages “the 20,000+ City trees on City property” and the street crews handle parkway trimming and removal.
Therefore the useful question on a St. Charles property is not only whether a tree is failing. It is what else on the block is the same species.
Plan versus code, stated honestly. The figures above come from the city’s management plan, not its ordinance. The tree chapter is Chapter 12.20, “Trees and Shrubs,” and it sits behind a viewer we cannot read, so we quote no section numbers from it. Worth knowing: the plan itself proposes that “Trees of certain sizes and species should require a removal permit prior to being removed from private property.” A proposal is not a rule. We confirm the current requirement with the city at 630-377-4405 before any job.
Tree Service St. Charles: What We Do
- Removals on private property, where no city crew and no six-year cycle reaches
- Pruning to ANSI A300 standards, and we do not top trees
- Stump grinding, to the depth the city’s own plan sets for its trees: “eight inches below the surrounding soil surface”
- Emergency and storm work, sequenced by danger rather than by who called first
One line in the plan deserves repeating on any property with wires overhead: “Only qualified utility arborists may perform tree removal operations within ten feet of an electric utility line.” That is the city’s standard for its own trees, and it is the right instinct for yours. If the limbs are in the wires, the utility goes first.
The City Runs Its Own Power, So ComEd Cannot Help You
This trips up newcomers every storm season. St. Charles is not a ComEd town. The municipal electric utility “began in 1892, when the City Council unanimously approved a payment to Phillip Harvey of $520 for preliminary work on a lighting plant,” and it has “grown to serve over 15,500 customers.”
Consequently the number in your phone is the wrong number. The city publishes one line for outages, staffed “24 Hours.”
Storm damage in St. Charles. If a wire is down or in the tree, treat the whole area as live and keep everyone back. Call 911 first. Then call the city’s electric utility at 866-444-0016, not ComEd. One caution: a St. Charles mailing address is not always inside city limits, and unincorporated parcels nearby may be on ComEd. We staff our line around the clock.
Pride Of The Fox
St. Charles is “a city in Kane and DuPage counties,” holding 33,081 people across 15.058 square miles at 750 feet. “The Fox River runs through downtown,” and Pottawatomie Park “sits on the river” as the largest park in the city.
Founded in 1834 as Charleston and renamed in 1839, it is one of the Tri-Cities along with Geneva and Batavia. Furthermore the city takes its canopy seriously enough to run a Natural Resources Commission, whose stated mission is to “conserve, preserve, protect and enhance the City’s natural resources.”
River-adjacent ground behaves differently from the uplands a mile west. In saturated soil a tree goes over at the root plate instead of snapping, and the root ball comes up with it.
Get A Tree Service St. Charles Estimate
Send the address and tell us what the tree is doing. If you know the species, say so, because in this city that answer carries weight. Estimates are free, seven days a week.
Call 708-424-5885 or request one online. If you want to read up first, the ISA’s homeowner guidance explains what a hazard assessment looks at.
St. Charles spans Kane and DuPage counties. See where we work in DuPage County, or the full service area. Nearby: Batavia and Aurora.
19253 South Blackhawk Parkway #80
Mokena, Illinois 60448
708-424-5885
Inquiries@protreeservice.com
Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week