by KIM HILSENBECK
While the City of San Marcos Habitat and Conservation Planning group was restoring the riparian grasses along the San Marcos River with native trees and shrubs, someone else had a plan to steal those trees.
According to Melanie Howard, Habitat and Conservation Plan manager, in mid-April, a section near the San Marcos River called Bicentennial Park was fenced off. Heritage Tree Care, a firm out of San Marcos, had already planted some of the trees; others were in large containers waiting to be put in the ground.
On a Thursday night, Howard said someone or several people cut the fence and took all of the containers. The next night, they came back and stole several of the already planted trees right out of the ground.
“We lost Bald Cypress, Cedar Elm, Mexican Sycamore, Texas Ash, False Indigo and Mexican Olive,” Howard said.
It was a huge loss, according to Howard, who said she reported the theft to the San Marcos Police and Park Rangers.
At the Arbor Day celebration a week later, the city’s public services department held its annual tree give-away at the San Marcos Nature Center on April 26. The City of San Marcos Public Services Division gave away more than 500 trees that day.
“At that event, two public services employees put up a can and a sign asking for donations to replace the trees we lost,” Howard said. “They raised more than $350, which basically helped us replace all of the stolen trees.”
She expressed gratefulness at the generosity of strangers.
“Once they heard what happened, they gave willingly,” she said.
Howard said San Marcos will sponsor a tree-planting event at Bicentennial Park on June 1. Contact Melani Howard at (512) 393-8448 to reserve a spot to plant trees; space is limited.
