$500,000 price tag to replace the 200 trees accidentally poisoned on North Temple

SALT LAKE CITY — What Salt Lake City Parks officials describe as a simple mistake will cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars.

The Public Lands Department is scrambling to replace hundreds of trees accidentally poisoned with weed killer. The dead trees are located on North Temple between Redwood Rd. and 700 West, and a few on the north end of 300 West.

“Everyone was shocked at the loss of the trees. People noticed that there were swaths of trees that had died,” said Toby Hazelbaker, parks director for the Salt Lake City Public Lands Department. “It was a simple mistake, a grievous error, of course.”

According to Hazelbaker, a city employee mistakenly sprayed the trees with weed killer, Milestone herbicide, last October.

“They simply used the wrong herbicide in the wrong place, and that is why these trees perished,” Hazelbaker said, adding that the employee is a state-certified sprayer.

The decaying trees are spread along the affected area, often next to shrubbery that appears unbothered.

Hazelbaker said this is because the herbicide impacted some varieties more than others. Many of the dead trees are Honey Locusts and Coffee trees, while the Elm and London Plane, also known as Sycamore, tree types proved more resistant.

The city is looking to replace the dead trees with these heartier types. Hazelbaker estimates it will cost taxpayers about $500,000 to replace the dead trees.

On Aug. 27, a council staff report indicated it would cost $85,000 to remove the trees and plant new trees in planters. At a unit price of $2,000, 100 tree planters will cost $200,000. $220,000 will go towards landscaping, four inches of soil removal, mulching, and modifying irrigation channels for the planters.

“As we speak, they’re being removed, the dead trees, their stumps are being ground down, and we’ll shortly thereafter be scraping about four inches of soil off,” Hazelbaker said.

It will be two years before the soil is decontaminated enough to replant. In the meantime, Hazelbaker said the plan is to bring out new trees in the planters.

“The trees that will in two years’ time be planted in the ground will be brought out when it’s appropriate, either this fall or in the spring, and be set in planters in that area so that we can almost instantly have some shade and some beauty back,” Hazelbaker said.

As a token of goodwill to residents in the impacted Fairpark community, Hazelbaker said they will also plant about 400 trees, twice as many as were lost.

“For every one tree lost, we’re going to replace it with two new trees. They won’t all fit into these park strips, so we’re going to be trickling trees out into the local neighborhoods and parks,” Hazelbaker said.

As for the costly blunder, Hazelbaker said the Public Lands Department has implemented new “double-safe” procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“We’re Parks people. We care about trees. It hurts us too that these trees were lost, and we’re committed to the Fairpark community and, of course, the West Side so that they have as beautiful a park as anywhere else in Salt Lake City,” he said.