Cherry trees planted along Catonsville roadway are damaged

The trunk of a damaged cherry tree along the Edmondson Avenue median. (Catonsville Tree Canopy Project )

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Flowering cherry trees stretching half a mile along the median of Edmondson Avenue in Catonsville were found damaged this week,and Baltimore County police say they have no suspects in what appears to be a deliberate act.

Five of 32 Kwanzan cherry trees planted by the volunteer Catonsville Tree Canopy Project were dead when James Himel, the group’s director, arrived with a fellow volunteer Monday morning to water them. The other 27 trees are “severely injured,” but still alive, he said.

Himel said he called police after he determined every tree had been hit. The cost to replace all of the trees could top $15,000, he said.

Some trees had branches “lopped off so badly they looked like Charlie Brown trees,” while others had “suspicious markings” at the base, said Louise Rogers, a county police spokeswoman.

The vandalism to the15-foot-tall trees probably occurred over the weekend, at night or early in the morning, Rogers said.

Himel said it appears a knife was used around the trunk of every tree, and a half-inch diameter hole was drilled into each tree. He said that might have been done to add some form of herbicide.

“Never before have we had such a malicious destruction of trees the community volunteers have planted,” said Himel, a 65-year-old Catonsville resident.

Catonsville Tree Canopy Project volunteers have been working to plant and maintain 1,000 trees in the community by 2020. Now in its eighth year, the project has planted about 700 trees, Himel said.

The damaged trees are in an area that’s a mix of residences and businesses. Most of the trees were planted about two years ago, and are of the same variety as those along the Tidal Basin in Washington — an attraction that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists when the pink blossoms peak in the spring.

“It’s more than just planting trees,” Himel said of the Catonsville Tree Canopy Project. “It really is a nice little bit of natural and, if you will, patriotic history.”

The group is funded through donations and grants. The volunteers will try to replace any trees they can’t save, Himel said.

To help the trees rebound from the damage, the group plans to increase watering from once a week to once every three days. The dead trees have been removed.

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