[Via Chicago]

it also happens when planting is immediately followed by a winter that gets down to -35F. dont underestimate the cold we had, there are a LOT stressed/dead trees all over the city this spring, and if it was a sapling without an established root system (or non-native) it was especially vulnerable. sadly it dosent seem like the city is moving fast enough to replace them either. there was a recent WBEZ article which mentioned we've actually lost 100k trees over the past decade and this most recent winter definitely will be exacerbating that. but yea, it seems like every tree the city puts in near downtown is surrounded by concrete and tends to not survive more than 5 years.