Reward Offered For Vandals Who Cut Down Tahlequah Woman's Trees

By Craig Day, The News On 6

TAHLEQUAH, OK -- A Tahlequah woman learned the hard way that not everyone appreciates the beauty and shade of trees. Certainly not the vandals who destroyed the hard work and nurturing pride of this Cherokee County woman.

Oklahomans hate a thief, and we can't stand vandals. Jo Lou Bohart hasn't ever had anything stolen, but vandals?  They've made her blood boil.

"They are my babies.  They were my babies.  These are my dead babies," said Jo Lou Bohart.

At her home in rural Cherokee County, Bohart just wanted to add a little beauty and a little natural privacy from the road. What she got is a lot of frustration.

"It's a knock you downer," Bohart said.

Out by the fence, someone cut through the Leyland Cypress trees she planted. She lost not just one or two – but all 50 of them. The ones she had watered, cared for and enjoyed so much.

"We were just floored," she said. "You can see how it went right through the stake itself.

"They were just flat out murdered, and these are all of their carcasses, their bodies."

"They were my friends," said Cherokee County resident Jo Lou Bohart of the 50 trees she lost to vandals.

The trees were all hacked a few inches above the ground, leaving just tiny stumps, and leaving Bohart hacked herself.

"It's like a hate crime, although I don't know if they hate trees or hate me," Bohart said.

She's out $1,000.

"It pulls at me a whole lot," she said. "It pulls at me a whole lot more than the cost."

But Bohart is also deprived of the satisfaction of watching them grow, and the anticipation of what could have been.

"Meaner than sin; that's mean," she said.

She's left with a mess to clean up.  And the questions of who would do such a thing, and why? She's upset.  She's puzzled.

"Trees are good.  Everybody loves trees," said Jo Lou Bohart.

But most of all, this grandmother on County Road 690 is just sad that something of beauty came to such an ugly end.

Bohart and the Sheriff's office checked with the power company, road crews and even utilities that might have underground lines, and they didn't cut down the trees.

An anonymous donor is putting up $1,000 to help find who is responsible. The number for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office is 918-456-2583.