Vandals uproot 60 new trees along St. Paul riverfront, costing city $40,000

Sixty newly-planted trees along St. Paul’s riverfront were uprooted Wednesday night, and most were tossed into the water, an act of vandalism costing tens of thousands of dollars.

“I’m incredibly sad. It’s hard to fathom,” said Karen Zumach, the director of community forestry for St. Paul-based non-profit Tree Trust, which contracted with the city to plant the trees with the help of high school students in October. “I like to think that trees are the least controversial thing we deal with these days.”

The trees were planted over two days along Shepard Road, in the area of Upper Landing Park and the Sam Morgan Regional Trail.

Photos taken by city staff Thursday showed long rows of upturned dirt where the trees once stood. All but 14 of them were tossed into the Mississippi River, rendering them unsalvageable, Zumach said.

The St. Paul Parks and Recreation Department estimated the damage comes to $40,000.

Police confirmed Thursday it received a report of the vandalism and an investigation is ongoing. The city parks department said in a statement the vandalism is believed to have occurred overnight.

The 14 trees that did not end up in the river have been reinstalled, Zumach said. The process to replace the others has yet to be determined, but the planting season has already passed.

About 25 high school students helped plant 250 trees while school was out during the annual MEA conference for state educators in October, Zumach said.

The trees were a variety of species and were meant to replace a large swath of ash trees that were professionally removed earlier this year, Zumach said. The saplings stood about five to seven feet tall and weighed up to 30 pounds.

The plantings were part of a job training program run by Tree Trust, where students can receive work experience in the industry. The program set out to plant 1,500 trees in St. Paul this year.

Zumach said her organization has dealt with vandalism in the past – trees that are broken or bent – “but nothing of this scope and scale.”

“I think I’m still a little bit speechless,” she said. “It’s a pretty devastating thing to have happen. There’s no real words.”