17 Vancouver maple trees illegally chopped

Vancouver police and the park board are investigating after 17 maple trees were chopped down along Cambie Street and West 29 Avenue and left lying on the ground sometime after midnight on Jan. 6 or 7.

• A history of illegal tree cutting in Vancouver

Vancouver Park Board spokesman Howard Normann says it happened in the dead of night inthe 500 block of West 29th with no one immediately noticing what had been done.

"I think this was done with maybe with a re-chargeable power tool, very fine blade, probably 10 to 15 minutes at the most," he said."If you know those kind of tools they're not that loud and I don't think people would ever expect something like that would be happening."

The trees were planted four years ago, and the maples stood about three to 4.5 metres tall before they were cut.

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