Trees cool our kids.

Natural Habitat in 2023 planted 158 trees at ten public elementary and middle schools and the high school. In all there were 23 school plantings (46 hours), with 404 volunteers: students, girl scouts, Openlands Treekeepers,  school teachers and school staff participating. Seventy-five trees were donated by the Chicago Regional Trees Initiative, and the remaining trees were purchased with donations to Natural Habitat Evanston.

District 65 schools are lawn-heavy, often unshaded and, for kids on playgrounds, often extremely hot. NHE plantings engage classes of students to learn about the many benefits of trees. NHE also helps organize adult volunteers for plantings. Find the tree request form below.

Natural Habitat also provides fencing and mulch.

Here is the District 65 Process to Ask for Trees.

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Spring 2023 Plantings (tree and shrub species)

American hazelnut (Corylus americana)

American linden (Tilia Americana) - basswood

American plum (Prunus americana)

Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)

Blue beech (Carpinus caroliniana)

Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)

Carolina allspice, sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus)

Chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra var. Canadensis)

Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)

Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana) 

Pecan (Carya illinoinensis)

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)

Prairie willow (Salix humilis)

Purple-flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus)

River birch (Betula nigra)

Sassafras (Sassafrasalbidum)

Serviceberry (Amelanchierlaevis)

Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata)

Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor)

Red oak (Quercusrubra)

Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)

Trumpetvine (Campsisradicans)

Wafer ash Ptelea trifoliata)

Yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea)

Nature's Perspective provided Heritage Oaks: oaks are from acorns collected from some of the largest, oldest trees in Evanston.

The mother trees have thrived in Evanston’s specific environment, suggesting that these baby oaks also will flourish in Evanston. Grown by Tom Klitzkie of Nature’s Perspective Landscaping, they include red, swamp white and bur oaks.

Oaks are the top tree for wildlife, acorns feed diverse birds, mammals and insects, and oaks are larval host to more than 500 species of butterfly and moth caterpillars. Larval host means these hundreds of species of pollinators require oak leaves to develop to adults, just as monarch caterpillars need milkweed in order to develop to butterflies. Twigs and other tree parts also feed wildlife.

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