City of Wilmington to remove handful of recently planted trees

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The City of Wilmington’s tree planting initiative is nearly complete, but some of the trees have been removed.

The city’s urban master forestry plan called for the planting of more than 4-hundred trees along Market Street and throughout downtown Wilmington.

About 20 trees planted were the wrong species.

The trees had to be removed because, as they mature, their limbs could interfere with overhead power lines.

In addition, several trees arrived in poor condition from the nursery and have also been removed.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said replacement trees can not be planted until later this year.

“There are certain times of the year that you plant these types of trees,” Saffo said. “We’ve kind of missed that window. Now, those trees were planted during that time frame. We’ve lost a certain amount of trees, those trees are now being taken out, and those trees will be replaced at the appropriate time, which will be between the months of November and February of this coming year and next year.”

More than 90% of the trees the project called for have been planted.