Salt Lake City worker accidentally poisons hundreds of trees in Fairpark area

SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of trees along North Temple near the Utah State Fairpark are now dead or dying, after they were accidentally sprayed with a weed killer. The City’s Parks Division is owning up to the mistake.

The city said someone in its grounds maintenance crew accidentally used the wrong product — and sprayed a weed killer called Milestone that shouldn’t have been used around trees.

“We do everything we can to make sure that our applicators were trained and licensed, as this staff person was,” Salt Lake City Parks Division Director Toby Hazelbaker said. “This was a simple mistake, a far-reaching and devastating mistake. But it was a human error that happened.”

The hardest hit areas are along North Temple from around 700 North to Redwood Road. The trees just past West High along 300 West from 600 to 900 North also appear to be dying.

“This herbicide is typically used in rangeland. It’s a common herbicide. It’s not appropriate around decorative trees. And that point was missed,” Hazelbaker said. “This person supposed, after reading the label, that it would be a great application where North Temple had been overgrown because of construction to knock down all the noxious weeds.”

Up to 200 trees have been impacted and city officials fear more may die soon.

“It’s 90% of the trees are lost,” Hazelbaker said about the stretch of North Temple between 700 North and Redwood Road. “There are some who somehow missed some of the application. There are other species of trees out there that weren’t as heavily affected.”

Hazelbaker said the spraying happened in the late fall of 2023, and by spring of 2024, people started noticing.

“As everyone in the area started to note, and we ourselves noted, that many trees seem to be affected we went through (and) we took some soil samples.”

The Fairpark Community Council posted about the issue recently, saying it learned the results of the city’s investigation into this and they were heartbroken to have their reports of dying trees confirmed.

The city said they tried to save the trees with vitamins and extra water. Hazelbaker called the efforts to try and save the trees “heroic.”

What happens next?

As for how they fix this, Hazelbaker said the city wants to take out the trees as soon as possible and they’re in the process of making sure the soil doesn’t have any more chemicals in it.

“As much as we’d like to replant trees right in the earth where this happened, we don’t want to do that,” he said.

They’re currently waiting for soil reports to come back.

“One of the ideas is to bring out large planters and place medium-sized trees in those planters. The same trees, that once the soil samples come back, maybe it’s a few months, maybe it’s a couple of years. Those trees can then be replanted in the ground once the soil has been amended properly,” he said.

Hazelbaker said the trees that were lost were 10 to 12 years old.

“We can get trees three, four, or five years old to have a somewhat significant shade canopy at that size planted even if it’s in planters with fresh soil,” he said.

There is also an internal city investigation into the possible discipline for the employee, which could include termination or possible fines. Hazelbaker couldn’t comment further on specifics but said the person is still employed with the Parks Department.

“This is somebody who’s been on our team for some time, who’s been a licensed applicator for some time, and cares immensely about their job.”

Hazelbaker also said the department has met with all their licensed applicators underscoring the need for proper application. He said they also changed internal processes so that this doesn’t happen again — now requiring chemicals to be checked out, and a supervisor to sign off on any mixture, and when chemicals are returned.