A tree vandal is on the loose in Chicago. Fifteen large cottonwoods were chain-sawed to the ground earlier this week in the butterfly sanctuary at Burnham Park on the city’s South Side. The trees’ remains were just left there. Adam Schwerner with the Chicago Park District says the destroyed trees were among the largest in the sanctuary.
SCHWERNER: It’s impossible to replace a tree in-kind. You can bring in a six-foot sapling, but it’s going to take 40 or 50 years to get there. So what are we going to do? We can’t really do anything. We can’t reconstruct a tree. We can’t bring in a tree of that size to replace what was lost. It’s gone.
A spokesperson for the police department says an investigation is ongoing.