“The Tree City Grand Marshall – Celebrating Professionalism ”
The City of Evanston has a Fourth of July parade every year and in 2015, the theme was “Tree City – Green City”. That year Evanston’s Fourth of July Association had decided that Paul D’ Agostino should be named as “Grand Marshall”.
For the parade, Paul worked with his Forestry staff to design and built two floats. They wanted to highlight their “I Heart Evanston Trees” fundraising campaign to help purchase more trees to replace hundreds of Ash trees being lost to EAB. They used city and trailers, made banners, constructed a wooden “tree”. Paul invited his Forestry staff and their families to ride the floats.
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On the big day, Paul rode the 1.5-mile parade route with his wife in a 1920’s convertible. He expressed that it was quite an experience. They received a lot of cheers along the way. The float with the kids riding on it won the second place in the Community Float division! This event provided great exposure for their Forestry program as it generated extra funds for their city’s tree planting efforts. His staff had a lot of fun building and riding on the floats. Paul said, he was very proud Grand Marshall that day as well.
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For over 22 years, Paul D’ Agostino has dedicated himself in the field of forestry. His current position is “Environmental Services Bureau Chief” for the City of Evanston, IL. In 2004, he put together a report for the City Council on “Why we should begin injecting public Elm trees?” Paul along with a group of residents and officials put in a lot of effort to make that happen. They have injected 2,200 elm trees and even today Evanston spends $1 million every three years to inject their public elm trees. Their job responsibilities also include tree pruning, tree trimming, tree removals and snow removals. Evanston’s in-house crew does the 90% of the community’s work. Volunteers are used to clear invasive species in natural areas of Evanston and are also responsible for their city decorations during Christmas.
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Paul not only dedicated himself to the City of Evanston, but he also became a part of the USDA Forest Service and Illinois Strike Team Initiatives. He was deployed hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Urban Forest Strike Team (UFST) initiative was developed by the USDA Forest Service in the Southern Region (R8), following a series of devastating hurricanes. The goals of UFST assessments are to assist communities in need, provide increased public safety, a more efficient recovery, reduced loss of the urban tree canopy, and to document disaster recovery needs and costs for possible FEMA reimbursement. In 2017, Paul served as one of the Strike Team Leaders in Illinois first State Strike Team deployment to Ottawa/Naplate area. In the fall of 2017, he completed the national USDA FS Strike Team Leader Certification.
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Paul is currently administering a grant to the City of Evanston for removal of invasive species and replant trees, shrubs and plants that attract migratory birds. This is will help expand their newly created bird sanctuary. Citizens will be able to watch these beautiful birds rather than see dead trees.
Paul’s favorite tree is Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa). He likes gardening, fishing and baseball.
Paul expressed his passion for trees as: “I never met a tree that I didn’t like”