PERRYSBURG, Ohio (AP) – It was a clear-cut error: A state worker mowed down 28,000 young trees that had been planted as part of a $33,000 highway beautification project.
The only thing left behind were signs that read “Do not mow or spray.”
“Shame on us. We wasted all that effort,” Joe Rutherford, a spokesman with the Ohio Transportation Department, said Friday.
The oaks, ash, birches, maples and sycamores were planted in 2002 and 2003 at the interchange of Interstate 74 and I-475 near the Toledo suburb of Perrysburg. The city, county and state paid for the seedlings, and volunteers put in more than 700 hours planting them.
Rutherford said the seedlings, which were no more than 2 feet tall, were cut down earlier this week. He said that many seedlings had died, and that someone got the idea it would be OK to mow them down.
“I’m sure at some point someone was directed to mow. I’m not sure at what level that was given,” he said. “We’ve reviewing the matter.”
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