May 13, 2024
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Activists lose fight to save old oaks near Geneva

Brian Maher: ‘The trees are gone. There’s nothing left.’

By Brenda Schory
Geneva Township resident Brian Maher stands next to a burr oak he says is at least 300 years old. That tree and others are part of a 211-acre parcel proposed to be annexed and rezoned in Geneva.

Geneva Township resident Brian Maher stands next to a burr oak he says is at least 300 years old. That tree and others are part of a 211-acre parcel proposed to be annexed and rezoned in Geneva. (Photo provided by Brian Maher)

GENEVA – The fight to save 300-year-old burr oak trees near Geneva appears to be over as the trees that activists were trying to preserve have been clear-cut, Brian Maher of Geneva Township said.

“I went through stages of grief every morning I heard those saws and heard these things being ground up,” Maher said. “The trees are gone. There’s nothing left.”

Maher provided drone footage he took of the area where the trees were cut down.

Maher had rallied others to the cause, hoping to convince the property owner, Midwest Industrial Funds of Oak Brook, not to cut down the oaks.

Company officials did not respond to an email request for comment.

MIF has not yet filed a formal application for annexation to Geneva, just its initial development proposal.

The company owns 211 acres at the intersection of Route 38 and Kautz Road south to Fabyan Parkway. MIF has a proposal for eight buildings, one of them a warehouse that required the trees to be cut down.

While Geneva has a tree preservation ordinance, Kane County does not.

MIF has a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers that limited it from cutting down trees greater than three inches at chest height until after Oct. 1 to protect an endangered bat species.

Kathleen Chernich, assistant chief of the Army Corps regulatory department in Chicago, said she thought the clear-cut area was outside of the permit boundary.

Maher and others rallied tree supporters with a Change.org petition that carries more than 4,500 signatures and a website, savegenevaoaks.com.

But in the end, even risking arrest by sitting on the cutting equipment and creating a parody of Geneva’s burr oak city seal as a stump didn’t make any difference.

Geneva Township resident June Maher changed the city of Geneva’s seal of a burr oak to a stump, in protest of a developer’s plan to cut 65 burr oaks for a warehouse.

Geneva Township resident June Maher changed the city of Geneva’s seal of a burr oak to a stump, in protest of a developer’s plan to cut 65 burr oaks for a warehouse. (Image provided by June Maher)

They also asked Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns to intervene and ask the developer to relocate the warehouse, but he could not take action.

In an email response to those who reached out to him, Burns wrote that the development does not yet have a complete annexation application, so city officials and the Planning and Zoning Commission are prohibited from expressing opinions “for risk of violating the due diligence policies adopted by the [City] Council and present in law.”

According to Burns’ email, the city will address all concerned, as well as “misinformation that is being labeled as ‘facts.’ ”

“So when all the regulatory bodies are ready to consider this development [or any development] they can do so with confidence knowing that the information before them is accurate,” according to Burns’ email.

GenevaKane County