Council Supports Tree Removal In/Around Corbin Park

The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council voted to support removal of 38 weak and dying trees from historic Corbin Park.

Members of the council and Corbin Park home owners toured the park with city officials May 9 to discuss the health of some of the oldest trees.

The Corbin Park Homeowners Association tree committee meets Tuesday and is expected to reach a decision at that time.

It will send a separate letter to the city Parks Department with recommendation.

The Emerson-Garfield neighborhood asked that new trees be planted for each one removed. They also asked that several small red oaks planted in crowded areas be transplanted to spots where they’ll have more space to grow.

Mike Stone, parks special operations division manager, said he hasn’t received the letter from the neighborhood group yet.

“We will work with the neighborhood hand in hand on the replacement of the trees,” Stone said.

“We said we would be willing to remove the trees over three years,” he said.

How and when the trees will be replaced, still needs to be worked out.

At first, neighbors strongly opposed the removal of trees, some of the last vestiges of the Olmsted Brother’s 1909 plan for the park.

They were worried removal of the trees would ruin the formal park design.

Neighbors and city representatives spent nearly two hours in the park on a recent soggy Saturday, discussing the trees and the city’s liability if one of the weak branches were to fall on someone in the park.

Six years ago, Dutch elm disease swept through the park, requiring removal of 200 elms ringing the park.