These Aspen trees were poisoned and died in the Upper Mission.
Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna
August 04, 2022 - 11:10 AM
Trees in widely separated areas of Kelowna have been killed by poison.
An elm tree, estimated to be more than 60 years old, was poisoned on city-owned land that serves as a beach access at 900 Manhattan Drive, which is at the extreme easterly part of Manhattan Point just north of downtown Kelowna.
City crews had to remove the dead tree.
An Aspen was poisoned in the Clarance Greenspace at Kuipiers Crescent in the Kettle Valley area near the south end of the city. Because of the connected root system, six other Aspen died as a result.
Those trees will not be removed.
"We will leave them to decompose on site and break and fall and do what trees do and provide habitat for birds and other animals until then," Tara Bergeson, the city’s urban forestry technician told iNFOnews.ca.
The Aspen help with flood control in the area and there are about 200 other trees still left in the Greenspace. Bergeson doesn't think any others are in danger of dying.
“It’s in a very natural state,” she said. “It’s quite grown in with native shrubs and there’s actually standing water in it. It’s what we call a wet forest. It’s essentially a depression point, a water collection point for the area and the aspen really only exist there because they use so much water. They actually hold a lot of that water, take it up and protect the nearby slopes from hydrologic failures or any kind of erosion.”
While the damage to the trees in both areas was detected around the same time over the past two weeks, she doesn't believe they were poisoned by the same person. In both cases, the roots were disturbed and some kind of poison poured into the ground. The city has not tested to determine what was used and Bergeson doesn't want to release any details on how it was done for fear of copycats.
“These intentional acts of harm to our trees are really tragic and senseless,” she wrote in the news release. “With all the benefits that trees provide our city, the big question when it comes to tree vandalism is why? The elm on Manhattan was a mature tree providing shade, helping to clean the neighbourhood’s air and beautifying the street.”
The Clarance Greenspace trees may interfere with the views of some homes but she can't say if that was the reason they were poisoned. They were there long before anyone moved into those homes.
The city is asking for help from anyone who can provide information on who may have poisoned the trees by calling 250-469-8500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
READ MORE: It isn’t easy being an urban tree in Kamloops
Vandalizing or removing trees on city property carries fines of up to $50,000 for each tree.
The City of Kamloops is also dealing with vandalism towards trees. The most recent example was a group of youths of attacking a tree with a hammer to peel off the bark which kills the tree.
This 60-year-old Elm tree had to be removed from Manhattan Point.
Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna
— This story was updated at 3:39 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, to add information about the Clarance Greenspace.
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