Joliet gets grant from Morton Arboretum to widen city tree inventory

Joliet has received a grant to widen an inventory of what kind of trees are growing in the city.

The $216,519 grant from the Morton Arboretum in Lisle will allow the city to expand a tree inventory previously done in the Cathedral Area.

“This is citywide,” Public Works Director Greg Ruddy told the Joliet City Council last week before it voted to approve the grant.

The council approval came ahead of an announcement Monday from the Morton Arboretum that Joliet is among 22 Illinois communities to receive federal funds awarded through the arboretum for urban forestry projects.

“The large number of applications clearly demonstrates the need and desire for resources and capacity to plant and care for trees for the many benefits they provide to communities and people,” Morton Arboretum President and CEO Jill Koski said in a news release announcing the grants.

The city previously used a $20,000 grant to conduct a tree survey of a West Side area that runs between Jefferson Street and Black Road and between Larkin Avenue and Center Street. The survey counted 6,000 trees in that area, and the inventory was used in the development of the city’s Urban Forestry Management Plan.

That plan will be expanded with the larger grant awarded through the Morton Arboretum.