Two sets of trees were recently vandalized in Magnolia and Queen Anne, and the damage will eventually kill the trees, according to city arborists.
A Magnolia resident living across the street was caught in the act of damaging a stand of evergreens at the corner of West Fulton Street and 26th Avenue West when he used a cherry picker to trim the tops on July 3, according to a police report.
But the person who recently damaged two cypress trees in the 1400 block of Eighth Ave. W. by cutting through the bark around multiple trunks is unknown, said Eric Wilson, a nearby Queen Anne resident who called both police and the city about the vandalism.
Girdling, as the bark-cutting is often called, usually kills trees because nutrients travel through the bark, noted Mark Mead, the lead arborist with Seattle Parks and Recreation. Parks is involved because the girdled trees are part of the Queen Anne Boulevard system, he said.
Wilson said he didn't want to point any fingers, but he has his suspicions about who was responsible - and why they damaged the trees. "There are neighbors who have made inquiries about having trees trimmed for view purposes," he said.
Indeed, views obviously would be improved for numerous homes on a steep slope to the east of Eighth Avenue West if the cypress trees were gone.
Although he saw a man jump out of the trees at one point, Wilson didn't actually see anyone vandalizing them. The damage only came to his attention when his wife noticed the trees as she was walking the family dog on Friday morning, June 23. "We think it happened on the Thursday night (before)," he said.
Wilson added that he wasn't sure how the bark had been cut away, but it took some effort. "They spent considerable time," he said. It also took some time before Wilson was able to figure out whom in the city to contact.
Police didn't want to write a report because the trees aren't on Wilson's property, but his search eventually led to the Parks Department instead of the regular city arborists, Wilson said
And Parks did file a police report, Mead said. "We are going to pursue the issue the best we can." It's important because the Queen Anne Boulevard system, which circles the hill, was specifically designed to improve neighborhood esthetics both for pedestrians and motorists, he said.
"One of the things that's really good about this is a citizen stepped forward immediately," Mead added. That took courage, he said.
Wilson also put up notices on the wall next to the trees about the vandalism, and he said he has been getting calls from other neighborhood residents about the deliberate damage. "People are outraged."
Whoever was responsible knew exactly what to do to kill the trees, Wilson said, though he said he held out some hope the trees could be saved. There is an experimental grafting technique that has been used to try to fill in the cut-away bark on girdled trees, but the technique won't work in this instance, according to Mead. "We cannot do a patch on these trees."
And in what will surely be a disappointment to the person who vandalized the Cypress trees, they will probably not fall over when they die in five or six years, Mead said. "They probably won't even drop branches."
The trees eventually will be replaced with the same species, he said, adding that the two trees are worth around $16,000. The value is especially significant because if the person who vandalized the trees is caught, the person will be facing a fine that is three times the value, Mead said.
The treble fines are based on a city timber-trespass ordinance, said Nolan Rundquist, a city arborist who's dealing with the tree vandalism in Magnolia.
The man who topped the Magnolia trees knew they were on city property, and he admitted he didn't have a permit to trim them, according to the police report. But the man who allegedly damaged the trees in an obvious effort to improve his view may not face any fines at all.
Although they are on city right-of-way, records indicate the city didn't plant the trees and hasn't been taking care of them, according to Rundquist.
"We would probably defer to the abutting property owner," he said of any demand for monetary damages, which would probably add up to around $45,000 because of the threefold fines.
It's unclear who will be responsible for cleaning up the aftermath, but topping the Magnolia trees will eventually kill them, Rundquist said. The trunks of the trees will rot out, and future growth will be on the sides, something that will add too much weight to trunks, which will be as weak as paper towels, he said.
Rundquist (see profile this issue) said the Magnolia incident is typical. People will decimate nature in front of their houses so they can look at nature 100 miles away, he said with deliberate irony. "It's a bad deal."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
