Tree Crime: Rare Tree Stolen

Little did I know I would wake up this morning and be able to post a breaking story on a tree theft. Someone probably wanted a cheap Christmas tree for the family and ended up cutting down an endangered species.

Cutting down a Christmas tree is my favorite part of the season (at sustainable, local tree farms), notwithstanding the time we decided to drive out to a Sebastopol tree farm (40 minutes away) and my appendix decided to burst. I think I got a lot of mercy presents under the tree that year. Read the whole story (linked) below:

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times science reporter
A Keteleeria evelyniana tree, like this one, was sawed off and stolen sometime Tuesday night or Wednesday morning at the Washington Park Arboretum. The 7-foot-tall tree was one of only a pair at the park. The tree, which is native to southwestern China, Laos and Vietnam, is rare. When they spotted the stump Wednesday, staffers at the Washington Park Arboretum had little doubt what happened: Someone seeking a free Christmas tree had chopped down a likely candidate.

But even the Grinch wouldn't have targeted that particular tree. The 7-foot conifer was one of the park's rarest specimens, an imperiled species collected from the mountainous Yunnan province in China.