Hundreds of trees are poisoned, dead after SLC officials apply wrong herbicide

It was quite a mystery for Fairpark residents on the west side of Salt Lake City when they saw some of the trees dying on their street.

According to Salt Lake City Councilman Alejandro Puy, it was due to a procedural mistake that led to the wrong herbicide being applied.

"The city conducted an investigation and found out that a team from Public Lands applied herbicide to potentially hundreds of trees on North Temple which is a tragedy,” he said.

Puy said he found out about this a month and a half ago. "Right now they are monitoring, gathering information about what to do. There is a slight chance that the trees come back, we don’t know. But it doesn't look very good right now,” added Puy.

The Fairpark Community Council posted on their Facebook page that Salt Lake City Public lands investigated about 200 dying trees along North Temple islands from Redwood Road to 700 West, and 300 West islands from 900 North to 600 North.. They shared a statement with the council saying:

“A procedural error by Parks Division ground maintenance staff led to the improper application of herbicide on the trees. Although all Public Lands maintenance staff who use herbicide are certified by the State of Utah, which includes completing a comprehensive safety and training course, a staff member failed to follow the correct protocols which resulted in the use of the incorrect product. The applied herbicide, known as Milestone is commonly used to kill and control shrubby species and trees while not killing grass; however, in this case, it was applied at the base of trees in an attempt to kill weeds, leading to a rapid decline in tree health that could lead to the complete loss of the tree."

"This is a tragedy that is impacting the area of the city that has fewer trees. We also have some of the worst air pollution here on the west side of Salt Lake City. So, this very bad on so many fronts,” said Puy.

He is still working with the city to understand what exactly happened, and what the next steps are.

"It shouldn’t happen and it certainly shouldn’t happen ever again, this is probably one of the biggest mistakes our city has made," he said. "We got to make sure that this place gets nice and neat for everybody to enjoy Salt Lake City for what it really is,” said Gunn.

Hoping that the Westside is not forgotten.

"Come out and see us once in a while out here, because we matter too,” he said.