SEATTLE - A thief is turning Seattle's beloved Lake Washington Park Arboretum into a sort of Christmas tree lot. An extremely rare Chinese Keteleeria Evelyniana was chopped down and stolen sometime Tuesday night.
Whoever cut down a 7-foot conifer in the Seattle Arboretum got a lot more than a typical Christmas tree.
It was a rare, imperiled species from China that may be impossible to replace, Randall Hitchin, a University of Washington Botanical Gardens manager, told The Seattle Times.
Hitchin had nurtured the tree, a Keteleeria evelyniana, since it arrived as a seedling in 1998 from Yunnan province.
"I think we got it in a shoebox, just a little seedling and we've been coaxing it along ever since," said Hitchin. "It's kind of heartbreaking."
The university manages the 230-acre Arboretum as a collection of 20,000 trees, shrubs and plants used in classes and educational programs.
Officials have considered fencing or dousing at-risk trees with paint or foul-smelling animal urine in an attempt to prevent them from being sawed off for Christmas.
Hitchin said it would be costly to replace the tree, which is native to southwestern China, Laos and Vietnam.
"Investigators don't believe the thief had any idea of the magnitude of his crime was probably just looking for a free Christmas tree.
The thought of the $10,000 conifer possibly sitting in the living room of a nearby fraternity house has University of Washington horticulturist David Zuckerman disgusted.
"It doesn't even look like a good Christmas tree," said University of Washington Horticulturist David Zuckerman. "I always thought it looked kind of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree."
Those who oversee the arboretum are now considering ways to protect the remaining trees during the holidays. They're seriously looking at spraying the trees bright orange with a non-toxic paint to make them less attractive to thieves.
Anyone with information on the theft should call the Seattle Police Department or the Arboretum itself at 206-543-8800.
