Have you seen the cottonwood killer? Kelowna RCMP seeks witnesses after deliberate poisoning of mature tree | 24CA News

Mac Logan is getting bored with seeing mature bushes being deliberately poisoned in Kelowna, B.C., and is now asking for witnesses to return ahead after a 3rd such incident within the metropolis in 12 months.

Logan, infrastructure supervisor for the City of Kelowna, says an RCMP investigation has been opened after a mature cottonwood in a small metropolis park was intentionally vandalized. 

The 18-metre-tall tree, situated at 1055 Sunset Dr., had greater than two dozen drill holes in it that Logan mentioned have been stuffed with herbicide.

“We don’t believe it’s going to survive,” mentioned Logan of the tree.

City arborists anticipate the tree, which is the most important within the park and supplies ample shade in summer season months, will likely be fully lifeless inside weeks.

It’s not the primary time of late that Logan and his colleagues have seen a tree poisoned this fashion.

Last August, a big elm situated at 900 Manhattan Dr., together with a number of aspens within the Kuipers Peak neighbourhood, have been killed utilizing the identical method.

While Logan doesn’t know for positive the motive behind destroying these bushes, he has his theories.

“You can’t just cut down trees because they are maybe in your view,” mentioned Logan, who suspects this newest incident was to enhance sight strains for somebody’s property.

Local couple Vickie and Jim Gurney have been horrified to see the state of the tree once they rode their bikes by the park. 

“It’s just really unfortunate that some people view themselves as so important that their view is more important than anyone else, or nature,” mentioned Jim Gurney. 

Logan is hoping that by talking out concerning the cottonwood killing, witnesses who noticed somebody tampering with the tree will come ahead. 

He mentioned it might have taken time to drill 25 holes and it might not have been attainable to take action quietly, so it might have required a number of visits to the tree to get the job completed. The tree additionally had its protecting wrapping eliminated that was used to guard it from native beavers.

Vickie Gurney hopes whoever did the deed pays the worth.

“It was pretty brazen the way they did it and I just hope they get caught,” she mentioned. “Shame on them.”

Logan mentioned taxpayers should pay a hefty worth for the tree’s removing, which is able to seemingly require a crane.

“There are thousands of dollars worth of effort that are going to be expended at the taxpayers’ expense that didn’t need to happen,” he mentioned.

Anyone who might have witnessed, or has data referring to, this incident is requested to name Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300 referencing file quantity 2023-800746.

If callers wish to stay nameless, they will contact Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or depart a web based tip at crimestoppers.web.