Chatham tree planting initiative helps fight flooding in Chicago neighborhood

A tree planting initiative has kicked off in Chatham, among the Chicago neighborhoods most plagued by flooding, to help with the persistent problem.

CBS News Chicago Investigators has covered extensively Chatham's flooding problem, the efforts to mitigate it and even technology created to monitor it more closely. Now they're adding a green approach.

"We're just trying to plat as many trees as we can," said Alex Cordero, arborist. "You're giving the water a place to go other than into the system."

"Tree roots and leaves soak up storm water and with the increasing number of extreme rain events, that's really important," explained Nedra Fears of the Greater Chatham Initiative.

Fears is leading the charge on the project. She said the locations for the new trees were selected carefully and after mapping utilities. Sixteen sites in total were chosen with community input.

"This complex is 80 years old and they haven't planted new trees in decades," Fears said.

Researchers and experts at University of Illinois Chicago said they've been working with folks in Chatham to address longstanding flooding issues for months now. They said plantings like this can make the difference.

"We are thinking about a lot of solutions to dealing with flooding. One of those is of course increasing plant and canopy coverage so increasing trees," said UIC researcher Max Berkelhammer.

The trees were made possible through an equity grant from the Morton Arboretum. The group will plant 96 more trees through the neighborhood over the next month, and then about 100 more in the fall.