Horner Park’s eighth-annual beer fest is set to return on Friday, featuring over 35 local craft brewers, food trucks, live music, and a new goal: helping turn the park into a tree sanctuary. The park, which has at least 70 different species of trees, is aiming to become an accredited arboretum under the international ArbNet program.

Conservation Efforts

The park’s conservation efforts began in 2013, when it lost three ash trees to the emerald ash borer. Since then, the park has treated its ash trees with an injectable insecticide, which costs around $100 per tree and protects it for at least three years. The beer fest, which was launched in 2017, has helped raise funds for the treatment and has become a key part of the park’s conservation efforts.

The park now has 89 critically-endangered ash trees, thanks to the conservation efforts and additional trees that were donated. The festival’s organizers hope to use a portion of the funds raised to help submit an application to the ArbNet initiative, which is overseen by the Morton Arboretum, American Public Gardens Association, and Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Arboretum Status

Obtaining arboretum status would open up new opportunities for the park to receive grants and funding. The park’s advisory council plans to create an interactive database of the park’s trees, which would feature a public-facing portal that patrons can use to go on self-guided tours and access other interactive educational experiences.

The accreditation process could take as little as a week if the park’s application meets all the necessary criteria, which includes having 25 different labeled species or varieties of woody plants. The arboretum status would apply to the park’s entire 55 acres, including 13 that have already undergone an extensive ecosystem restoration since 2014.

Original reporting: Block Club Chicago — read the source article.