Rare tree felled from Seattle arboretum

A possibly irreplaceable tree valued at over $10,000 was cut down this week in Seattle from Washington Park Arboretum, reports the Seattle Times.

An excerpt from the story:

The 7-foot conifer was one of the park’s rarest specimens, an imperiled species collected from the mountainous Yunnan province in China.

“It makes me want to cry,” said Randall Hitchin, manager of living collections for the University of Washington Botanical Gardens, which include the arboretum.

Hitchin nurtured the Keteleeria evelyniana from the time it arrived as a seedling in 1998.

The park has one other specimen, collected from a different area. But that tree is a kind of ugly duckling, compared to the symmetrical beauty that was felled, Hitchin said.

“It was a wonderful, wonderful tree.”

Replacing the tree will be costly. It may not even be possible to find a genetically equivalent specimen.

If the perpetrator is apprehended, what might be an appropriate punishment?

–Toshio Suzuki