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Asbury Park police are investigating the mysterious uprooting of five saplings within the 100 block of Dewitt Avenue. 

The department was notified about the uprooting of the trees at around 8:45 Friday morning by City Engineer Joe Cunha, according to Asbury Park Police Chief Mark Kinmon. 

“We did take a report and are looking into it,” Kinmon said. 

By Friday afternoon, members of the city’s public works department placed the trees back in the ground and bolstered them with stakes to prevent them from falling over, Cunha said.

“Two of them are pretty scuffed up,” he said. “I don’t know if they are going to make it.”

Cunha spoke with a tree expert who counseled him to get the trees back in the ground immediately and to saturate them for the next two weeks, he said.

Tom Pivinski, chair of Asbury Park’s Environment and Shade Tree Commission, said he has “the greatest confidence” Cunha will handle the situation appropriately.

Whomever committed the act could be charged with criminal mischief or vandalism, depending on the extend of damage done to the trees and if any do not recover from being uprooted, Kinmon said. Penalties for the offense range between a disorderly persons offense, which would be heard in municipal court, to an indictable crime, which would have to be heard in the county superior court, he said.

“I will be having a meeting in the very near future to discuss the tree plantings in Asbury Park, and, as I have said previously, I think it very appropriate to plant trees in the city in appropriate locations,” said Mayor Myra Campbell. “I recognized there were concerns made about the tree plantings and there was not a true buy-in by members of the community regarding the project.”

The trees were planted by residents, members of the city’s ESTC, representatives from American Forests, the New Jersey Tree Foundation [NJTF], IKEA and Bank of America as  part of a “Community ReLeaf” program in Asbury Park in October of last year.

A total of 40 trees were planted along the street between Bangs and Springwood avenues in an initiative to increase the city’s aerial coverage and shade, and to study the environmental impacts of urban forest restoration following Hurricane Sandy.

Before the trees were planted, representatives from the New Jersey Tree Foundation canvassed the block to inquire whether homeowners and businesses on the block wanted a tree placed in front of their property along the curb line of the city’s right-of-way. After the plantings, some people railed against the trees during the public participation portion of several council meetings, prompting City Manager Jack Kelly to draft a letter to homeowners about the trees, which included a brochure from the ESTC about the healthy effects of trees, and where to call to report concerns.

No one has called to report any concerns about the trees so far and the brochures were sent out about six weeks ago, Kelly said.

“Trees have a positive effect on many aspects of people’s lives,” said Councilwoman Amy Quinn, who serves as a commissioner on the ESTC. “The fact that someone would maliciously do this to people in the Southwest quadrant of our city deeply saddens me.”

[Photos provided by City Engineer Joe Cunha.]

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