Vandals ripped out trees in St. Paul last year. Volunteers planted new ones.

Almost six months after vandals uprooted 60 saplings in St. Paul and tossed them into the Mississippi River, dozens of volunteers have undone the damage.

On Friday afternoon, the group spread out along Shepard Road to dig holes, plant replacement saplings, pack mulch around their roots and stake the young trees.

With buckets and wheelbarrows, the volunteers made quick work of 45 trees. The plantings added to the 14 trees that were recovered last fall after they were pulled out of the ground.

The vandalism had the planters perplexed.

“We saw the story last year and wanted to give a hand,” said Ed Rutledge, a Ramsey County Public Works forester. “We wanted to show support and solidarity, and some of the resiliency that we have.”

Shepard Road, which runs along the river from the Hwy. 5 bridge in Highland Park to downtown St. Paul, has lost much of its tree canopy to the emerald ash borer. In October 2024, a group of high school students planted some 250 trees, leaving spindly saplings lining the bike path along a long stretch of the road.

But just a few weeks later, vandals ripped out 60 of them.

St. Paul police investigated, but Parks and Recreation Department spokeswoman Clare Cloyd said no one has been charged.

The total damage was estimated last fall at about $40,000, but Cloyd said the cost to replant the trees on Friday would be far less. St. Paul and Ramsey County split the cost of $7,371, she said.

On Friday, as the gray afternoon became a drizzly evening, the first shift of volunteers finished their plantings across a half-mile stretch of riverfront trail east of Upper Landing Park, and a second shift in neon yellow mesh vests started working their way west from Lower Landing Park. The two groups covered almost a mile with saplings.

The volunteers said they were hopeful their work would last this time.

“Let’s get these puppies into the ground,” Rutledge said, “and hopefully into their forever homes.”