Stadium, golf course, thoroughfare threaten Chicago's mature trees, group says

(The Center Square) – An environmentalist and Chicago professor says asthma cases and respiratory disease cases are on the rise, possibly due to the Chicago Park district cutting down mature trees.

Environmentalist groups are calling for a Chicago Lakefront National park designation amidst the park district's plans to cut more trees down for projects associated with the Redefine the Drive program and the possible construction of the Bears stadium. Jeannette Hoyt said tree oxygen production varies by tree size and that mature trees with more than 30 inches in diameter can produce over 240 pounds of oxygen a year.

“The incidents of asthma in Chicago have been breathtaking for researchers before the trees for the Obama Presidential Center were cut down. We have not had an adequate asthma study since 2019 before the trees were cut down and we don’t know what the air quality has become,” said Hoyt.

Hoyt, who has a master’s degree in public health and has been doing research on the rise of asthma and other respiratory diseases in Chicago for two years, said one in two kids on the Southside have asthma. Hoyt said as a “union town” that means Chicago is constantly looking for things for workers to do.

"So that means tearing things down, redoing things and rebuilding things…which maybe we should be concentrating on houses, dwellings and roads. But that’s not sexy. Redefine the Drive is sexy, doing something on the lakefront is sexy, the Bears Stadium that’s sexy,” said Hoyt.

Hoyt estimates about 600 trees could be cut down if plans continue for the Redefine the Drive and Bears Stadium projects.

State Rep. Kam Bucker whose district includes parts of Chicago's South Lakefront and downtown, filed a new bill that he said will "return DuSable Lake Shore Drive to the people."

HR0438, which passed this May, urges the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Transportation to transform Du Sable Lake Shore Drive into what Buckner called "a lakefront thoroughfare.” Hoyt explained that the mature trees, which sequester more carbon than saplings, will be destroyed if the project moves forward as planned.

"There was a recent tree survey that found Chicago has 16% tree cover and New York has something like 22%, and we’re looking to cut down more trees. Our asthma rates are so high here that researchers have been looking at them [the asthma rates] since before 2000,” said Hoyt.

The Redefine the Drive program will likely result in the destruction of mature trees and Hoyt explained mature trees capture harmful pollutants. An important air pollutant of concern is fine particulate matter (PM2.5). This pollutant is linked to serious health impacts and can increase someone’s chances of developing dementia.

"PM2.5 is a new visitor on the scene, we have just begun to quantify that and correlate it to health outcomes in people breathing in elevated levels of PM2.5, the research came out just this year because it’s 20 years worth of research and three different studies, the results are senile dementia, asthma and cancer,” said Hoyt.

The Obama Presidential Center has resulted in 303 mature trees in Jackson Park being cut down; 612 trees left to destroy. Hoyt said the amount of trees removed by Redefine the Drive will be more than Tiger Woods-Designed Golf Project Design is planning on cutting down, if their project moves forward again.

Back in 2016, then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans to create a professional tournament-quality course adjacent to the presidential library, a project that former President Barack Obama himself backed, even personally requesting Tiger Woods to design it.

However, the project has been delayed.

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