DeKalb Celebrates Trees with Pawpaw Planting

The City of DeKalb has planted a pawpaw tree to celebrate the benefits trees provide in beautifying our community and making it a more sustainable place to live.

Mayor Cohen Barnes, Second Ward Alderwoman Barb Larson, representatives of the City's Citizens' Environmental and Community Enhancement Commissions and members of the Public Works and Fire Departments gathered with pawpaw tree enthusiasts from the community and Northern Illinois University on Oct. 28 to plant the native tree in front of Fire Station One on Pine Street.

The planting, along with a Fall Arbor Day proclamation issued by Mayor Barnes, will help DeKalb earn the Tree City USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation, a recognition of a community's commitment to maintaining and growing its urban forest. Barnes said this urban forest reinvigorates residents as they connect with nature.

I see these old growth trees, the canopies that are over the street, that, to me, is our heartland, that to me is a reflection of how I see the City and how I see, quite frankly, the Midwest here in our community," said Barnes. "The fact that we prioritize this, I don't think just breathes life into the individual resident or breathes life into the City of DeKalb, it quite literally breathes life into our planet.

Recognizing the vital role of trees in producing oxygen, cleaning the air, storing carbon and regulating climate, enhancing the tree canopy is an objective of the City's Sustainability Plan.

(The plan) is multi-year, and it's long-term and short-term goals for our environment, whether it's planting trees or different things you can do to make DeKalb a better place, cleaner place to live," said Alderwoman Larson, who serves as the Council liaison to the Citizens' Environmental Commission. She notes the plan was developed by the Commission's volunteer members. "This was a big project, and it's been on their personal time, donating to our City, and it's working.

The planting was also an initiative of the volunteer Citizens' Community Enhancement Commission, which was approached by organizers of the Pawpaw Festival in nearby Pawpaw about planting the native tree in the City. One of the organizers, Austin Cliffe, sees the fruit-producing pawpaw as a mascot for sustainability, and noted they are good for pollinators and serve as habitat for native life.

They have value as a landscape tree as well. They put out beautiful flowers in the spring, which attract a variety of native insects, which are also forage for birds," said Cliffe, who began growing pawpaw seedlings from seeds collected from two pawpaw trees on South Sixth Street. "I happened to see a very interesting bird in my garden, the American redstart, which I was unaware of its existence, feeding on all the insects that were browsing the flowers.

Along with work to earn the Tree City USA designation, the City's efforts in support of trees included securing a $255,000 grant from the Morton Arboretum to care for existing trees, remove hazardous trees and replace those with 50 trees to be planted next year. Additionally, the City continues to offer the 50/50 Parkway Tree Program, in which the City and homeowners share the cost of planting new parkway trees.

DeKalb Public Works team members plant a pawpaw tree at Fire Station One for a Fall Arbor Day event on Oct. 28.