Thieves chopped down a pair of blue spruces in Denver parks this week, presumably looking to use them as Christmas trees.
A 7- to 8-foot-tall spruce was sawed down in Ash Grove Park in southeast Denver. A second tree was cut from Lindsley Park in the Mayfair neighborhood, city forestry superintendent Mike Swanson said.
“I kind of get ticked off,” said Swanson, who admits to getting a little emotional when vandals cut down trees in city parks. “It is pretty senseless.”
Swanson said two to four city spruces or conifers are poached for Christmas trees each year.
“This is supposed to be a season of giving, but they (the thieves) are actually taking away from the park district,” Swanson said.
In Denver’s dry, high-altitude climate, it can take five to six years for a spruce to add 2 feet in height, Swanson said. It costs the city about $330 to replace a blue spruce, which is valued at $500 to $600 by the time it reaches 8 feet tall.
Swanson said the trees will be replaced eventually, but the city is facing a “tight budgetary climate.”
Denver has about 80,000 trees in its parks and parkways, Swanson said.
The thieves used a handsaw to cut the tree in Ash Grove Park. Swanson estimated it took the vandals as long as 30 minutes to cut the tree and then drag it to a vehicle.
If caught, the vandals could be charged with destruction of public property, he said.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
