John and Barbara Perry nurtured the Japanese lilac tree in front of their South Union Street home for four years. It had grown from a sapling to a 10-foot tree with a 3-inch trunk. “It had berries in the spring,” John Perry said.
Friday night, it was destroyed, in what has become a rash of tree-breaking incidents along South Union, South Winooski Avenue and nearby Burlington Hill Section streets.
John Perry heard it happen.
“I was woken by a loud snapping sound, and I heard several male voices laughing. I thought it was a car being vandalized.”
Residents in the neighborhood are so angered by the vandalism that they are offering a $600 reward for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of the vandals.
“In my 30 years as city arborist, it’s the worst case of public vandalism to trees I’ve ever seen,” said Warren Spinner, who surveyed the damage this week. “It’s frustrating.”
Beginning in September last year, 13 trees have been destroyed along South Winooski Avenue and South Union Street south of Main Street. Five trees have been damaged. Spinner said the vandalism ended in May and then began again this month. The Perrys’ tree was broken off at about the 5-foot level. Saturday morning, John Perry found the broken off section of the tree down the street, dragged it back, and put a sad face picture on it to alert his neighbors.
Saturday night, the vandals returned, smashed the remainder of the tree with a large rock, tore up the sad face placard and threw the pieces in the street.
Spinner and a Parks Department worker sawed off the shattered trunk at ground level. Whether the tree vandalism is part of the general student walk-by disorder on weekends is unclear. Police Chief Mike Schirling said overall noise complaints are down slightly this year but have increased a bit south of Main Street.
Tree vandal or otherwise, someone left a pair of pants on South Union Street on Friday night, and Perry said he found an empty 30-can case of Labatt Blue beer. Further south on South Union Street, a neighbor of the Perrys woke up Sunday to find his picket fence had been damaged.
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