Click here for a quick video update on the trees. Please keep sharing this petition on social media to keep people updated. Last week, we created a human barrier and sat on machines to keep the developer Midwest Industrial Funds from clear-cutting our old growth forest of 300+ year old oaks.

We were able to temporarily stop cutting and we got some press that we thought would help us stall the cutting until an injunction could be filed.

But Midwest Industrial Funds went into overtime to clear as many trees as possible — in violation of permits and despite endangered species living in these trees — to avoid more bad press, hoping we would go away.

Members of our Geneva City Council sent intimidating emails, telling us we were sabotaging the city’s good name, trying to silence us — but we will not be silenced.

While many old oaks still remain, watch the video to see what the forest looks like one week later.

But the fight is not over. On Tuesday, I attended the Kane County Board meeting to eulogize the trees we lost and plead for intervention and a Kane County tree preservation policy so no developers can come in and destroy our county’s old growth forests in exchange for warehouse and trucks.

The board was sympathetic and supportive and suggested more roads we could take — a stark contrast to Geneva City Council and Mayor Kevin Burns, who told me “nothing can be done”

But time is running out and many of the trees are gone.

That said, Midwest Industrial Funds intends to request annexation to our city and variances to our city policies — we will be there to remind council that MIF has been a hostile neighbor and they do not care about us.

It’s not WE who sabotage our city and its reputation — it’s Midwest Industrial Funds and the Geneva City Council that courted and wooed them to come take advantage of our city’s resources.

Even though many of our beloved oaks are gone, we want to protect other cities and their old growth forests from developers like Midwest Industrial Funds. We want this on the record.

And when our next local elections come in 2025, we will remember. Google will remember. The scarred land where 300+ year old oaks once stood will remember.