Chicago woman says rotting berries from neighbor's tree are feeding rat problems in Lincoln Square

CBS News

4 days ago

A woman from Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood said a giant tree's sweet berries are causing a sour situation, feeding into the neighborhood's rat problem, and no one will listen to her concerns.
"That's why I chose to contact Channel 2 News," she said. "I need someone to listen to me."
Jane, who did not want to share her last name, never fancied herself a farmer. But for the last 28 summers, she has gotten quite the haul of rotten berries landing in her backyard.
CBS News Chicago met Jane as she was scooping rotten berries out of nets hanging between garages on her property and collecting them in plastic bags. The daily harvests add up.
"Since I've been gathering them and weighing them, since June 14, I'm over 215 pounds of berries, just this year" Jane said.
The nets don't catch all the berries; even more are piled up on the ground and nearby garages. They are not edible for humans.
"You can't use these for cooking. You can't use these for donating to anybody," Jane said.
Instead, the berries make a delicious meal for pigeons, bees, fruit flies and, most frustratingly, rats.
Jane has taken plenty of pictures of the rats the berries attract. One mother rat was spotted carrying her baby as she stopped for a snack earlier this month. Jane says the berries are creating an unsanitary, slippery and smelly situation.
"There is rat feces everywhere," Jane said.
The berries fall for about six weeks straight, and end up rolling around in the nets and on the ground.
Jane can't control the decaying fruit because it is not coming from her yard. It is coming from a gigantic mulberry tree on her neighbor's property. The tree in question is so big that some of its branches are held up with metal.
"If we get a sudden downburst, that chain's not going to hold anything," Jane said.
Jane shared her concerns with 47th Ward Ald. Matt Martin, but was told the city can't do much because the tree is on privately owned land.
"It is your right to take down the branches that encroach on your property line, but I know you mentioned the problem is with the entire tree," Martin's staff wrote. "Our office does not have the capability to compel your neighbors to take down the tree."
The "take matters into your own hands" advice when it comes to tree branches crossing property lines doesn't always work out. CBS News Chicago covered a similar overbearing tree story in 2021. In that case, Roula Savakis of Chicago's Peterson Park community was so frustrated with a wall of trees blocking her windows that she hacked them back. In response, her neighbors took her to court, alleging at least $100,000 of damage.
Asher and Cynthia Kohn accused Savakis of violating the Illinois Wrongful Tree Cutting Act. They claimed she damaged 38 of their trees intentionally and illegally. Four years later, CBS News Chicago has learned that the Savakis family ended up selling their home to the tree-owning neighbors and relocating.
In Lincoln Square, as Jane's dog Brutus went hunting for mulberry-loving rats, CBS News Chicago went looking for the tree owners.
Jane and two plant experts suspect the tree is a white mulberry.
"Interestingly, white mulberry was introduced to the U.S. back in colonial times because it is the preferred food of the silkworm caterpillar, which is where we get natural silk from," said Jamie Viebach, horticulture educator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Viebach said while white mulberry is not officially listed as an invasive species in Illinois, it is non-native and very weedy.
"It can basically be considered invasive (though, without the legal ramifications of the official designation)," Viebach wrote.
And the tree is treated as invasive by some land managers.
"It is not regulated or banned in any statewide way in Illinois, though it is often managed and removed by land managers when it is found growing in natural areas," said Chris Evans, an extension forestry and research specialist at the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Viebach also noted that the Morton Arboretum lists white mulberry as a "problem plant." Jane agrees with the description.
"This is a health issue right now," she said. "This is a safety issue."
CBS News Chicago knocked on the neighbors' door, but never got an answer.
The city can issue citations to homeowners whose vegetation creates a "public nuisance." CBS News Chicago was told that while Savakis' situation with her neighbors' trees in 2021 met the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation criteria for a public nuisance, Jane's berry situation does not meet those criteria and does not warrant any fines.
The city said the following constitutes a nuisance per ordinance 10-32-140 (Trees, shrubs or other plant materials – Public nuisance):