The City of St. Paul says with labor and other expenses, the costs of the vandalism totals about $40,000.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/15292455

The trees were among 250 planted in mid-October by an army of young arborists, paid by Tree Trust for their efforts.

“We spent more than, I’m pretty sure, more than a week on that road,” explains Malick Jenke, among a half-dozen high school grads taking part in Tree Trust’s ‘Branches’ program.

The group of tree planters includes 25 high school students from St. Paul and the ‘Branches’ participants — most of whom are interested in pursuing a green career.

“One tree will take anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes to get it completely planted, mulched and watered. In some cases, we have to stake those trees as well,” Zumach says.

She notes the value of the destroyed trees adds up to about $12,000, but the City of St. Paul says with labor and other expenses, the costs of the vandalism totals about $40,000.

A spokesperson says replanting the trees is a priority but noted planting season is pretty much at an end.

  • @[email protected]
    6•2 hours ago

    Ripping out 60 trees that weigh 30 lbs each in a night? There’s no way this was just some drunk hooligans or something. This was either over money or politics.

    • @[email protected]
      4•1 hour ago

      Depending on how they “ripped them out” 30lbs is an extreme underestimate.

      That’s a lot of friggin work. I hope they had PPE at least 🤷‍♂️/s

      Edit: they said 30 lbs in the article lol must be container trees. For how tall those trees are that’s really small root balls though. But still a friggin lot of work!!!

  • @ThekingoflordaMA
    14•6 hours ago

    For one second I thought they threw the vandals in the river.

  • Flying Squid
    29•7 hours ago

    America can’t have nice things, so I guess it’s good that it’s going to stop having nice things in that respect.

      • @[email protected]
        4•4 hours ago

        People who would want that land for buisiness purposes could possibly be the ones who uprooted the trees. The thought process being someone who wants the land would cause disruption until the tree planters give up I guess.

        Idk just my thoughts on what OP meant though

        • Null User Object
          7•4 hours ago

          A few newly planted trees aren’t going to be the thing that stops a business from going in if that’s what someone wanted to do. There are plenty of hurdles to opening a business, from owning or leasing the land, to business permits, etc, but a few newly planted trees aren’t going to stop anyone.