An award-winning environmental journalist, Evelyn Herwitz began writing about Worcester's urban forest crisis more than 20 years ago, when she realized that a third of the trees on her street were dying from disease or neglect.

What began as a magazine article evolved into Trees at Risk, which inspired the hiring of the city's first urban forester and a major reforestation effort to replant 30,000 trees lost to the Asian Longhorned Beetle.

Worcester's story is a lesson for all: Never take our city trees for granted.