How Much of McHenry County is Covered by Trees?
Looking at the percentage and make-up of the canopy in McHenry County.
What’s the value of a tree?
The Chicago Region Trees Initiative publishes forest summaries for communities in the Chicago area that include the percentage of the community covered by tree canopy, the make-up of that canopy, and the annual benefits of the canopy.
McHenry County has 19% tree canopy and an additional 75% of the land could potentially be converted to be covered by canopy. Overall, the tree canopy in communities (at least partially) in McHenry County come with $5,586,930 in annual benefits.
Here’s the canopy coverage, the annual value of the tree canopy and the value of the carbon storage in the 32 McHenry County communities for with CRTI provides information.
The county summary also breaks down the species of tree responsible for the make-up of the canopy by coverage and individual trees.
You can see that while invasive Buckthorn makes up only 7% of the trees, it accounts for 36% of the total canopy. Buckthorn is a fast-growing invasive shrub that crowds out other plants and trees. (Read more about why invasive Buckthorn is a problem.)
On the other hand, Oaks (which are immensely important for our local ecosystem) make up 18% of the total number of trees but just 5% of the canopy. According to CRTI, only 10% of the county’s original Oak ecosystem still stands, and 84% of that is on private land.