All appointed members of the city of Springfield’s Urban Forestry Commission resigned at the end of January, citing a lack of cooperation from the current administration.
The UFC was reinstated in 2019 and led efforts to research grant opportunities, conduct a tree inventory, get a tree ordinance adopted, distribute hundreds of trees and secure substantial funding to plant trees and enhance outreach.
Mike Brunk, the Illinois State Urban Forester with the Department of Natural Resources who served 33 years as Urbana’s city arborist, said it has been a highly productive five years.
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“Springfield has been a shining star and one of the top communities in caring for and managing community trees,” said Brunk, a certified arborist who works with a broad range of community partners to enhance urban canopies across the state.
The UFC consists of seven members appointed by the mayor and three ex officio members – the director of public works, general manager of public utilities and the city arborist. The members who resigned have diverse backgrounds and skills but share a passion for trees: Susan Allen, a retiree with extensive state government experience; Randy Belville, owner of New City Greenhouse; Ernestine Lawrence, a retired District 186 administrator; Amy McEuen, professor of biology at University of Illinois Springfield, Erskine Route, a retired teacher; and Jan Von Qualen, a retired administrative law judge who chaired the volunteer group.
In her resignation letter, Von Qualen wrote, “communication between the city or its arborist and the UFC ceased in 2024. I conclude that this administration and its arborist, if it has one, does not welcome the advice or consultation of the UFC.”
Allen shared a similar sentiment in her resignation letter. “It became clear to me, however, that the city has no interest in working with the UFC, has no respect for the UFC’s community partners and fails to value its urban forest.”
Mike Disco, the mayor’s chief of staff, told Illinois Times it was “unfortunate” the members resigned.
“They bring a lot of experience and knowledge,” said Dave Fuchs, director of Public Works.
Both acknowledged it is important to have an Urban Forestry Commission as an advisory body to the city. Brunk said a tree commission is a wonderful tool for the community, with staff providing hired professionals and volunteers who can spend time that staff doesn’t have.
Over the last five years, the UFC organized annual Arbor Day celebrations, tree giveaways and numerous educational and outreach programs about trees. The group also helped the city secure funding to address tree-related issues, such as a $20,000 matching grant through Morton Arboretum which funded a tree inventory in the northeast quadrant of the city. As a requirement of the grant, a tree protection ordinance was adopted. Another matching grant secured $25,000 to pay for planting 130 new trees in the same area.
According to UFC members, they requested a meeting with the mayor on multiple occasions to discuss their past work and how they could best work with the new administration. Fuchs said that given the mayor’s schedule that never worked out, but representatives of the UFC did meet with chief of staff Disco.
In her resignation letter, McEuen wrote, “For many years UFC was my favorite committee to serve on, and I have served on a lot of committees over my 20 years as a university professor. … We got money for trees. We got money to hire people. We got the first tree inventory done. … There seemed to be a lack of respect for the team and all the UFC had done for Springfield.” McEuen credits Allen and Von Qualen for the time, passion and skills they devoted to the UFC.
Federal grant to city on hold
In September 2023, the city was awarded a $899,000 multi-year Inflation Reduction Act federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service. UFC members wrote the application and recruited community partners to work with the city to plant hundreds of trees in disadvantaged neighborhoods, along with hiring a community outreach arborist and several student arborists during the summer.
A key objective of the grant is to address health disparities. A study by SIU School of Medicine found that children from Springfield’s disadvantaged neighborhoods were 15 times more likely to have asthma-related ER visits than children from wealthier neighborhoods. “Trees are an excellent avenue to work with disadvantaged communities, improving their environment,” said Brunk.
The Faith Coalition for the Common Good works to address injustice and promote positive systemic change through community organizing, leadership training and outreach. The Faith Coalition was written into the grant to help with community outreach and identify student candidates for the summer student arborist positions.
However, both the city and UFC volunteers acknowledge implementation of the grant has been rocky.
“The city failed to keep the UFC informed on updates or city requirements,” said Von Qualen. Amy Rasing, the former city grant manager who now serves as director of the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, said there was a “breakdown in accepting processes.”
The Faith Coalition worked with Motherland Garden, Dr. Lance Thurman from Springfield School District 186 and others to identify students for the summer positions. Faith Coalition executive director Tyshianna Bankhead said the logistics of the city hiring process were challenging and there was a lack of knowledge of the barriers disadvantaged students face in applying. Eventually one student was hired, and more than 200 trees were planted.
The grant is now on hold due to the Trump administration. On Feb. 12, the city received notification from American Forests, the national pass-through funding partner to the USDA and Forest Service, that “disbursements for approved payment requests are [still] paused until further notice.” The letter further stated, “it is with deep regret that we give notice and order you to stop work and suspend all project activities, effective Feb. 20, 2025.”
Bankhead said she was initially more optimistic this year and has been working with Mandy McCann, who was hired by the city last July as the community outreach arborist. McCann passed the test in December to become a certified arborist and applied for that city position, which had been vacant since last year. The mayor approved her appointment, but now filling the community outreach position is on hold due to freezing the federal grant.
The former UFC members say they remain committed to serving as volunteer tree advocates and raising awareness of the importance of Springfield’s urban forest and its management.
“There is overwhelming support in the community,” said Allen. “We will continue to do what we can and want interested people to get involved.”
Fuchs concurs that trees are an integral part of the city and said McCann recently submitted the application for redesignation as a Tree City USA, which expresses the city’s commitment to the tree population.
Disco said the city intends to appoint new UFC members, who must be confirmed by the city council. The goal is to have new members in place for the April UFC meeting. Anyone interested in serving can apply online: https://www.springfield.il.us/BoardCommissions.aspx.
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Okay, just to be clear. The UFC members resigned at the end of January of this year, but President Trump did NOT pause the federal grant funding from the USDA until 2/12/2025 effective 2/20/2025.
So, the UFC members resigned due to the lack of communication and support from the City of Springfield that occurred last year in 2024 before the federal grant funding was paused in 2025.
These folks may have seen the writing on the wall and with the ongoing lack of communication and support from the City, may have just decided to throw in the towel before things got worse.
This is just very unfortunate for the trees and our community. With manufacturing leaving and urban forestry losing our support this great City appears to be on a major losing streak.
Good news? Spring is just around the corner and things are going to be getting a lot greener in Springfield soon!
Cheers!
Such hard working passionate folks who were ignored and treated poorly. I can’t imagine who would want to apply for that commission.
Homo sapiens have been around for 300,000 years. Trees have been around for 370 million years. Something tells me that our trees will be just fine without a group of tree-hugging woke commies telling the mayor what to do.
Very disappointed in City leadership’s lack of commitment to this important initiative. They should ask for the commissioners to come back and commit to working with them more closely and to fight the Trump administration for funding.