When a craggy four-block stretch of Jenifer Street is replaced in the fall, the sun will shine on the new pavement.

Which is exactly a lot of residents don’t want.

Along with the repaving, water main replacement and curb and gutter work in the historic district comes the loss of dozens of shade trees, the vast majority of them ash, which means the loss of a shade-providing canopy that some say is as historic as the stately homes that line the street. A total of 43 trees have been slated for the chain saw.

The $3.5 million project kicked off Monday, and death came quickly for some. But a handful still stand, placeholders for what residents hope will be another line of canopy trees.

“We have a temporary stay of execution on nine of them,” said Leslie Schroeder, who with her neighbors has been pushing for a change in city policy that would save the canopy not only on Jenifer Street, but elsewhere in Madison where with street reconstruction comes the clear-cutting of shade trees that interfere with power lines.

"On my block, the 800 block, the south side will be completely clear cut except for one tree," she said. "But we’ve managed to have two additional trees on that list of temporary trees being kept."

The reconstruction of Jenifer Street on four blocks from Spaight to Few streets, along with sections of Few, Brearly and Paterson streets, is slated to run through October. It’s not unlike other street projects that each year subject neighborhoods to dust, mud, noise and traffic problems. But the Jenifer Street reconstruction puts the city’s policy on shade trees in sharp focus.

It’s an issue that’s separate from but related to the city’s fight against the emerald ash borer. Because while the ash trees can be treated against the ruinous beetle, giving them a few extra years of life, Madison is not sparing any of the large trees that require extensive pruning to stay out of the way of power lines. Nor is it replanting trees that provide comparable shade. When it comes to canopy trees, where power lines are involved, the city has thrown in the towel.

But residents aren’t giving up so easily.

“We need to set this right for the future of our city,” Schroeder said.

Central to the save-the-canopy effort is the idea of burying electric utility lines underground, an expensive proposition. With main power supply lines, cable and phone lines, and individual power supply lines to properties, the cost for just a few blocks can cost millions.

But residents learned that “partial undergrounding” could lessen the cost significantly — about $200,000 along the Jenifer Street construction corridor, which comes to about $2,500 per home.

“We figured this would be a good place to work out what would be possible or not possible,” said Marquette Neighborhood resident John Coleman, who worked with Madison Gas and Electric to come up with the cost estimates. “Our ultimate goal is to be able to replant canopy trees, regardless of what happens to the trees that are there right now. And that can’t happen unless the power lines are removed.”

Coleman said neighbors learned of partial undergrounding when they looked at the 2014 reconstruction of East Johnson Street, where two commercial districts qualified for undergrounding of electrical utilities. The project includes five blocks total — from Butler to Blair streets and from Livingston to Brearly — and will ultimately cost about $3 million.

But Coleman found that if the costs of negotiating with cable and telephone companies and the complications of running individual power supply lines underground are factored out, dropping the main lines alone can be done relatively cheaply.

The main power line, which poses a fire risk upon contact with branches, is the reason so many canopy trees in the city have been pruned into the unfortunate Y shape that the city wants to avoid.

“There’s an opportunity to grow canopy trees there,” Coleman said of East Johnson Street.

There’s also an opportunity on Williamson Street. The city considered undergrounding power lines on Williamson Street during the 2011 reconstruction of that corridor, spending about $750,000 on infrastructure that would allow the main line to be dropped into the ground. But the remaining costs eventually tanked the plan.

But that was before the concept of partial undergrounding emerged. It might leave unsightly poles and wires, but it can preserve the canopy.

“That would be less expensive because we already have a conduit in and we’ve paid for that,” she said.

Coleman said the Marquette Neighborhood Association is advocating for getting rid of the main line on Williamson Street. But for now, the focus is on Jenifer Street, where big trees will come down and little trees will be put up if the funding isn’t found soon.

Coleman said that previously the city wasn’t responsive to the notion that the canopy could be saved. The city’s undergrounding policy, which provides money for tax increment financing districts and gateway streets, simply doesn’t provide funding for neighborhoods like his.

But now he has hopes that officials are starting to listen.

“It’s been a huge effort for the past nine months now, and before that on Willy Street, where we tried to get undergrounding,” he said. “But it does sound like maybe there’s a thought that there could be some movement.”

Rummel said she’s looking at the city’s undergrounding policy. She said she got involved after she realized that with partial undergrounding, the cost of preserving a canopy could be in reach.

“I'm sure neighbors, and I count myself as one, will go into shock and anguish once the Jenifer Street trees are removed, as have other neighbors across the city where trees have already been removed because of EAB infestation,” she said in an email.

It’s an issue that resides deep in the hearts of residents who are becoming increasingly aware of the changing look of the city as the ash tree canopy disappears.

The city has already removed more than 3,200 ash trees since 2014, the year after the ash borer was discovered in Madison, according to the city Parks Department. Another approximately 100 will be cut down during various street projects this year.

Currently, the city uses “Right Tree in the Right Place” Arbor Day Foundation criteria to replace them. But it also cuts down all ash trees located under power lines and replaces them with shorter species like ginkgo, flowering crab and ornamental pear, which detractors refer to as “shrubs” and “Q-tip trees.”

A Marquette Neighborhood survey put canopy preservation at the top of the list of concerns about the reconstruction, above environmental concerns over the faltering sewer system — the catalyst for the project — and vibrations from construction equipment that could damage the sandstone foundations of century-old homes.

“The neighborhood’s opinion is we’re a historic neighborhood, and that is not just the homes,” said Marquette Neighborhood Association President Lynn Lee. “It’s also the trees that line the streets that give the look of the street.”

The neighbors point to the many benefits of lining streets with canopy trees, like oak, honey locust or hackberry, that could replace the ash trees.

They note that large trees reduce summer temperatures for entire neighborhoods, can reduce heating costs by 10 to 15 percent and cut residential air-conditioning costs by 20 to 50 percent. They intercept storm water runoff, which reduces flooding, which in turn reduces the flow of pollutants into the lakes. They provide a wildlife habitat, provide cover from streetlights and privacy from prying eyes. They reduce noise pollution and increase property values.

Schroeder points to language in the city ordinance that established the urban forestry charge, levied on all water utility customers to mitigate the cost of the emerald ash borer. The ordinance lauds trees as a way to reduce energy use, facilitate storm water management, remove pollutants and attributes to them “other tangible and intangible benefits.”

These are not small-tree benefits, Schroeder said.

“I think there is a case to be made, pretty clearly, that they are not fulfilling the intention of that fund by cutting down ash trees and not replacing them with canopy trees,” she said.

But if the canopy can only be saved by burying power lines, who’s going to pay for it?

The neighborhood has listed such possibilities as TIF funding, city development fees, expanding the urban forestry charge, local fundraising and partnerships with MGE.

Rummel said she’s looking at options.

Coleman said in determining the cost, the city should consider the overall value of the city’s street canopy.

“It really depends on who you think is responsible for the cost,” he said. “We think it’s a citywide benefit, or at least a neighborhood-wide benefit. And individual property owners shouldn’t be stuck with the cost.”

Schroder said the city's temporary reprieve for the nine ash trees will make their eventual loss "less horrible and sudden." The extinction of the city's ash tree population, she said, is inevitable.

"We will eventually lose all of those ashes," she said.

But she said that shouldn't be an excuse to obliterate the canopy.

"We realize it’s not just the Marquette neighborhood that’s being impacted and that people are interested in," she said. "We made a Facebook page called Madison Canopy Street Trees. We’re trying to get together kind of a collation of people interested in various neighborhoods."

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