A new sapling has taken root at the world’s smallest park.
Just a day after someone chopped down the lone tree at Mill Ends Park over the Christmas holiday, someone planted a new tree in its place.
KOIN reported the replacement tree was planted late Friday evening.
On Sunday afternoon, people passing by took photos of the freshly planted tree – adorned with tiny holiday ornaments – in the concrete median of downtown’s SW Naito Parkway.
“It’s pretty cool someone else came and planted another tree, but also maybe a bit sad if the city has to remove it to plant an official tree,” said John Vassallo, who was riding his bicycle past the park.
“It looks like a healthy little sapling; it’d be cool if it were allowed to live.”
FOX 12 reports that Portland Parks and Recreation isn’t behind the planting, and that a horticulture team with the department will determine the best new tree for the park.
When OPB stopped by the parks bureau on Thursday, head of customer services Shawn Rogers said he didn’t know what happened to the original tree, only that it was more common for passersby to drop things off at the park than remove them. Whoever sawed the tree — and whoever replaced it — still remains a mystery.
Mill Ends, deemed the world’s smallest park by Guinness World Records, drew national attention six years ago when someone stole the park’s lone sapling — only to drop it back a few days later. The Douglas fir was later replanted in Mount Tabor Park.
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