A stately beech tree was vandalized recently near two cypress trees that were girdled on park property in the 1400 block of Eighth Ave. W. "Someone drove a series of spikes into a really major copper beech tree in front of our home," said Ruth Warren, who filed an Aug. 25 police report about the incident.
But Warren said she wouldn't have noticed if a neighbor of hers two doors down hadn't stopped by one day and suggested she check her beech tree because a cypress tree in his fenced yard had been vandalized with spikes and partial girdling.
She did and it was, Warren said. "They did a clever job; they're in the seams," she said of nails and copper spikes that had been driven into the tree starting about 8 feet off the ground.
Warren thinks there's a connection to the two cypress trees that were vandalized on park property in an obvious effort to improve the view for an unknown homeowner across the street.
"It's alarming that whoever did this [to the park trees] is willing to go on neighbors' property and kill those trees, too," she added. "I'm going to have my tree guy come in and remove them," Warren said of the spikes and nails.
Warren hopes the beech tree wasn't irreparably harmed by the vandalism, but she doesn't really have to worry, according to city arborist Nolan Rundquist. Using copper spikes to kill a tree doesn't work; it's an urban legend, he said.
Warren stressed that she didn't want to point any fingers, but she told police that one homeowner had approached her about two years ago about topping the beech tree. The same homeowner approached her about the same thing around a month ago, she added.
At the same time, there are several neighbors across the street who are unhappy with the beech tree because it blocks views, according to Warren.
The tree has been topped in the past, but Warren's family didn't want to do that, she said. Still, she's not averse to a little trimming. "We're actually in the process of thinning the tree," Warren said.
Police suggested installing video cameras outside in case the tree vandal or vandals return to do more damage, she said. But a neighborhood man who spoke on condition of anonymity thinks he saw the ones responsible for girdling the two park trees.
He was walking near the vandalized cypress trees around 9:30 or 10 in the morning when he spotted a man in overalls who was also wearing a hardhat standing right next to them. There were what looked like two day laborers with the man in the hardhat, along with a lawn-service truck across the street, the witness said.
"The guy [in the hardhat] was leaning over the railing and talking to somebody ... and somebody was using a power tool down below," the witness added. "I think those are the guys who did it."
That's what he thinks now, but the witness said he didn't think there was anything amiss the day he saw the men. "It was broad daylight."
But he saw the notice Eric Wilson put up about the vandalism to the two park trees and called him, the witness said. The witness added that he's also called police and Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, but the witness hadn't heard back from anyone when he was interviewed for this story.
Warren just shakes her head at the thought that her neighbors have been vandalizing trees on her street to improve their views. "It's too bad," she said. "I really, really love this neighborhood."[[In-content Ad]]
