NEW TREES ALONG SHAWNEE DAMAGED

Missouri Transportation Department officials don't know who to blame for the deep cuts found on 66 young trees planted along a state highway in Cape Girardeau.

State highway workers on Monday found cuts had been made near the base of the tree trunks on the south side of Highway 74 (Shawnee Parkway), east of Silver Springs Road. Workers discovered the damage when they went to water the trees."They are sawed about halfway through, so they will die" said Randy Hitt, MoDOT area engineer. Some of the trees have cuts extending three-fourths of the way through their trunks.

Hitt believes the cuts were the work of a vandal or vandals. "Someone took some time and sawed them right at the base," he said Wednesday from his Jackson office. "It would have had to have been intentional."The trees likely were cut sometime within the past two months, he said.

He said state highway crews who maintain the right of way aren't to blame. The cuts could have been made with "some kind of brush cutter with a fine blade on it.""It's nothing like we would have," said Hitt.

But Rocky Hayes, an urban forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said the whipping action of nylon-string weed trimmers can seriously damage the trunks of young trees."A nylon string is hard enough to cause that kind of cut," he said. Trees often are damaged by weed trimmers. Those wielding the trimmers often don't even realize they have damaged the trees."It's amazing how thin the tree bark is on young trees," said Hayes.

He hasn't personally inspected the damaged trees. But Hayes said many of those trees likely will die.

The 66 trees were among 180 planted along two stretches of Shawnee Parkway earlier this year at a cost of $28,801. The work was done by Hillside Gardens Inc. of Foley.

The contractor planted a variety of trees, including red maple, bald cypress, river birch and white pine.

MoDOT received federal funding for the project, the first tree-planting project of its kind in the highway department's District 10 region of Southeast Missouri.

Hitt said many of the damaged trees are 6-feet tall. They were planted at a cost of $160 per tree. If all 66 trees die, it amounts to a $10,560 loss to taxpayers, he said.

MoDOT has reported the damage to the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Hitt said he hopes someone will come forward with information about who is to blame for the tree damage.

Hitt said he can't understand why anyone would damage the trees. "It just doesn't make any sense."The trees were designed to provide a natural sound and visual barrier between the highway traffic and residents of a mobile-home park and the Chesley Drive neighborhood.

Hitt said MoDOT won't rush to replace the trees. "I don't want to spend more money and have the same thing happen."The department may plant seedlings next spring rather than invest in new trees, he said.