HOLS Save Your Ash 2026

Heart of Lincoln Square is working to treat and preserve ash trees in our community.

Ash trees are a huge part of Lincoln Square’s beautiful tree canopy — around 30 percent of it, actually. But they are under constant threat from a deadly pest known as emerald ash borer (EAB). 

While ash trees are exceptionally hardy in tough urban conditions and can withstand heat, cold, drought, flooding, root compaction from tight growing spaces and mulch piled up against their trunks (volcano mulching) far better than most tree species they have no defenses against EAB. 

Without EAB treatment our neighborhood ash trees will die, leaving our shady, beautiful, flood water absorbing, air purifying street tree canopy decimated.

That is why HOLS campaigned, first in 2021 and again in 2023 to treat and save these large, environmentally and socially valuable trees.

It is time again in 2026 to Save Your Ash.

There is an affordable and effective treatment that provides up to three years of protection against EAB, but the city of Chicago stopped these treatments in 2018 due to budget cuts. We lobbied the city to restore the treatments, with some success, but at this point again there are no funds to continue city treatments.

Unfortunately, the EAB is not waiting. It is continuing to infest and kill unprotected ash trees throughout the city. As it stands, our neighborhood is one of the very few in  Chicago that are retaining their valuable ash trees along with their benefits to the community. 

Please see the map below of all of the ash trees that are affected within our boundaries:

Inventory of Ash Trees within HOLS area

If you wish to donate for a specific tree, perhaps one on your block, please check out the map here and put the address of the tree(s) you want to sponsor in the designated text box under the "Amount" section. You can also put the exact amount of the cost of the treatment as noted on the map as a custom donation. 

If you are able to, you can also chip in to help us save trees that are not sponsored. Any unspecified donations will be directed towards covering the largest unsponsored trees first down to the smallest. And if we surpass our goal of saving them all, we will earmark any surplus donations towards their future treatment.

The cost to treat a tree will vary depending on how thick their trunk is, but with the average price costing $150 per tree, you can save one, two, or several trees with our different levels of donation. They are:

• $1,000 - That’s A Lot of Ash!
• $500 - Ash-stounding!
• $300 - Love Your Ash!
• $150 - Ash-tastic!
• Or do your own Custom Amount

One hundred percent of donated funds will go directly to treating the ash trees. 

Here are some reasons folks have chosen to sponsor:

• Sponsor the trees near your home or choose others that are important to you, such as those around Winnemac Park. 

• Honor a friend or loved one by donating in their memory. 

• Sponsor several trees through your business.

Everyone benefits from these trees being a part of our community and it is up to us to save them. 

The donation deadline is July 31st, 2026 in order to successfully have the arborist be able to pull permits and treat them this fall. Donate today and tell your neighbors and friends so we can save every single one of them!