Rotary Green plant sale aims to restore Jacksonville’s tree canopy

Jacksonville homeowners who want more shade this spring can buy $40 trees and shrubs through the Rotary Green sale, with persimmon trees, chestnuts, redbuds, magnolias and several shrubs among the options. Persimmons have to be purchased in pairs because they need pollination support, and orders can be placed through the Jacksonville Rotary Club Facebook page or by contacting a Rotary member directly.

The sale is part of the Jacksonville Rotary Club’s second annual Spring Tree and Shrub Sale, led by Samantha Boston with the city’s parks and lakes department. The club said its Rotary Green Committee got a very positive response to last year’s tree sale, and it added flowering shrubs after residents asked for them. Boston said the goal is to bring healthy trees back into a community once known as Elm City.

That nickname matters in Jacksonville, where early residents planted elm trees that helped define the city’s look. A University of Illinois survey in 1956 counted about 12,000 elms on Jacksonville streets before Dutch elm disease wiped out most of them in the 1950s and 1960s. The Rotary Green project is trying to reverse that loss one planting at a time, tying a practical spring purchase to a larger effort to restore the city’s tree canopy.

The club says Rotary Green has planted nearly $40,000 worth of trees since 2015, working with City of Jacksonville parks personnel, Morgan County personnel and arborist Pat Ward of Happy Hollow to choose planting locations. Trees funded by public donations have gone to MacMurray College, Illinois College, Routt Catholic High School, Community Park, Duncan Park, Nichols Park and along State Street and College Avenue.

The result is a civic project that reaches beyond landscaping. It shapes shade on neighborhood blocks, adds cover in parks and keeps the city’s historic identity visible in places residents pass every day. With shrubs newly added to the sale and tree orders running through the month, the Rotary Green effort has moved from a one-time fundraiser into a recurring part of Jacksonville’s spring planting season.