EIGHTEEN CITY-OWNED tulip trees along Chelsea Hills and Panorama drives were destroyed over the weekend. “It wasn’t some random act,” Mario Giuliani said.
Estimated $3,700 in damage after weekend vandalism
By Donna Beth Weilenman Staff Reporter
Eighteen tulip trees planted last fall with the help of students were killed and two ballfields were damaged by a motorist in a pair of separate weekend attacks on Benicia city parks.
“I am very upset and disturbed about this atrocious act of vandalism,” said Mario Giuliani after learning of the destruction of the young trees.
Giuliani, of the Office of the Director of Parks and Community Services, has been involved in several of Benicia’s tree projects, from the city’s tree program that was approved Sept. 15, 2009, a year after the city approved its tree ordinance, to the city’s tree inventory, its Arbor Day celebration and its annual certification as a Tree City USA.
Beginning last October, city employees and members of Benicia High School Interact Club began planting 20 tulip trees throughout Southampton Park, on Panorama and Chelsea Hills drives.
That planting is part of the city’s plan to add 300 trees on property it maintains. It not only marked last October’s Benicia Arbor Day, the tree planting also maintained Benicia’s certification as a Tree City USA, a designation it has had since 2008.
Click here to read the entire article
