In partnership with the Glenview Park District, the Village of
Glenview is hosting two public events on the impact of the Emerald Ash
Borer beetle. By offering these workshops, the Village hopes to help its
residents learn more about how their local government is responding to
this pest and what residents can do to help. These types of meetings
encourage transparency in government operations and also foster a
team-based approach to a problem that affects everyone.
GIS was able to assist in this project by mapping out the locations
of trees infested with Emerald Ash Borer within the Village limits.
Workshop attendees will see how the problem has progressed in Glenview
over a short period of time. The maps provide a striking illustration of
the statistics, which increased from 22 cases in 2009 to the 120
already documented in 2011. By using GIS, these educational aids were
created in very quickly and at little cost to the Village. Public Works
staff hopes to make further use of these maps to spatially analyze where
the beetle is and how quickly it is spreading.