Parks Cleanup City Crews Still Working To Remove Debris From November’s Ice Storm

The elegant willow trees that for years graced the island in the Manito Park duck pond are history.

Also gone are scores of trees in other parks on the South Side.

Three months after the November ice storm ravaged South Side parks, city crews are still removing broken trees and branches.

“There’s still a pretty good-sized mess,” said Taylor Bressler, park maintenance manager.

The worst spots are at Manito Park - at the duck pond and picnic area - and along tree-lined boulevards on the South Side.

The most visually shocking of all the damage is on the island at the duck pond, where the willows stood for 80 years or more, Bressler said.

Parks crews had no choice but to cut down and remove what was left of the aging island willows. The weight of the ice on Nov. 19 twisted and fractured the trunks beyond salvage.

“Isn’t that island a sad thing to look at,” said Richard Palmer, a South Side resident who visited the pond earlier this week.

Bressler said the broken willows were removed during the last freeze when ice on the pond was thick enough to support the weight of workers, who used the opportunity to drag the wood away.

They left behind a rock and dirt outcropping that is nearly barren of vegetation compared with what was there before the storm.

The city will plant red or yellow twig dogwood shrubs to provide greenery and protection for the waterfowl that use the island. Two sapling willows will be planted as well, but those will take years get big, Bressler said.

Elsewhere on the South Side, crews spent the winter when the ground was frozen removing trees from several parks, including Comstock, which lost some of its native ponderosa pines.

Native pines in the upper areas of Finch Arboretum also were ravaged, but the tree collection in the lower part of the arboretum survived better than officials first feared, Bressler said.

This week, tree removal is under way in Manito Park and along Manito Boulevard to the south.

Work is also yet to be finished on 21st Avenue and along Rockwood Boulevard.

Manito Boulevard survived without severe damage because many of the older trees are Norway maples that fared better than other species under the weight of the ice.

Some odd plantings of cedar and fir were damaged badly and are being removed.

A lot of the debris along Manito Boulevard and on 21st Avenue was dumped by property owners who wanted to get rid of limbs off their properties without having to haul them away.

Bressler said crews have found branches from tree species that don’t even grow on some of those blocks.

Still, he said most residents have acted responsibly and have been patient in waiting for the city to remove the wood.

“We aren’t getting a lot of complaints,” he said.

Some of the cleanup is being slowed by the thaw. Right now, the ground is too soft to send trucks onto some lawns.

In fact, some lawn areas are showing ruts from vehicles used in the cleanup.

“Ice storm will be with us for a while,” Bressler said.

No figures were available yet on how many trees are being removed or how much the cleanup will cost.

Bressler said the city hopes to recover some of its costs through federal disaster assistance.

A tally of the costs will be available in the next several weeks, he said.

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