It's no secret that large sections of trees are coming down at Green Isle Park in Allouez. People visiting the park FOX 11 talked with said it’s hard to see them go. Feb. 10, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Driving along Highway 172 east of the Fox River, you may have noticed a lot of trees missing around Green Isle Park in Allouez.
The invasive emerald ash borer has led to the clearing of the once-heavily vegetated area.
“It’s kind of sad, you know? Because these trees are probably 30, 40 years old, and where the ash borer came from, I’m not sure, and when they’ll go away, who knows? But it’s sad,” parkgoer Mark Neumeyer said.
He said it’s hard to see such a large area once full of trees now empty. Christal Chambers agrees.
“My first thought was, I felt really bad for all the small animals that lost their homes with all the ground cleared and stuff, but I do know that there was a lot of buckthorn in there,” Chambers said.
The emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle responsible for the death of millions of ash trees in the United States. The beetle makes its way inside of trees and cuts off the tree’s water supply, killing it from the inside out.
Allouez is no exception to this problem.
“Those trees were dead and brittle and hazardous,” Allouez Parks, Recreation & Forestry Director Chris Clark said.
He assured folks nothing is being built in this now-cleared area. The village is simply removing trees affected by the emerald ash borer to keep the area safer for everyone. It also allows for new vegetation to grow there.
“We’ll be coming, in the future years, starting this spring, doing some reforestation efforts too. We’ll be planting new trees, seedling trees and other types of shrubbery and things like that,” Clark said.
About 10 acres of Green Isle Park will see ash tree removal. The village is also removing dead trees along the East River Trail, working its way south.
Despite losing a bit of nature, parkgoers understand it’s for the best.
“You almost have to take them down. Especially if people are going to walk around in there and they would fall on somebody or just look messy,” Neumeyer said.
Clark said all the trees from this project won’t be removed by the end of this winter, but he expects cutting within Green Isle Park to be finished soon.
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