Stolen Tree's Proud Father Finds Another

It isn't as old and it holds no sentimental value, but Arlington County resident Peter Jones paid little attention to those details yesterday when he decided on a Japanese maple tree to replace the one he had grown for 25 years. That first one was stolen last week after he donated it to a recreation center, and in the days since its theft from the center, several businesses and corporations have offered to plant another in its place.

Arlington officials settled on Merrifield Garden Center, a nursery in Fairfax County, and yesterday Jones, 65, walked among the dozens of maples that sit in a back corner at the Lee Highway store. He marveled at their various shapes and wondered aloud which one would best fit the grassy knoll outside the Walter Reed Recreation Center on South 16th Street.

"This one, Pete," said his wife, Caecilie Jones, 70, pointing to the robust, 10-year-old maple with rust-colored, feathery leaves that he eventually chose. "It's just gorgeous."

With a price tag of $2,900, it cost about three times as much as the estimated value of the lace leaf maple Peter Jones had cared for. He had donated that tree to the 6-month-old recreation center, and it was planted Nov. 1. It was gone the next day, ripped from the earth overnight, and all that remained of Jones's hard work was a hole about two feet deep and a trail of dirt and leaves that led toward the parking lot.

Police said yesterday they had made no arrests in the theft, a felony. A reward of $200 was offered for the return of the tree. Officials said yesterday that trees are stolen regularly in Arlington, which plants about 1,300 a year. About three years ago, someone hauled off a 30-foot tree, said Stephen Temmermand, the county's division chief for parks, recreation and cultural resources.

And so to ensure, at least somewhat, that no one makes off with the new Japanese maple, county officials spent yesterday trading ideas about how best to secure it. Someone suggested chains; someone else, an electronic tracking device implanted in the bark.

"There may be ways to anchor down the roots, but we don't know yet what we'll do," Temmermand said. "These trees are fragile, and they're at risk at a community park; they're easily portable and easily damaged. . . . You can chain it, but chains can get cut."

Temmermand said the county hopes to replant the maple within the next week.

Pat Gillette, a manager at Merrifield, said several employees read a newspaper story about the theft of the original tree and asked whether the company might be able to help. It was "such a shame," he said, that someone could so cruelly seize what one man had spent more than 20 years tending.

Jones, a lifelong tree enthusiast who retired a few years ago from the federal government, began planning in 1999, when the recreation center plan was conceived, to make a gift of the tree. He attended most of the meetings about the project and lobbied hard for a carefully crafted landscaping plan, one that would include exotic and rare plants such as the ginkgo and bald cypress trees that now line the perimeter of the center.

"I'm very excited about this donation, I can't even tell you," Jones said yesterday, standing beside his wife and Merrifield employee Barry Tindall, who initiated the plans to donate the tree. Clad in a black cap and a gray sweater vest that each had a bonsai tree embroidered on it, Jones shook his head and smiled: "God says all is great."