FIRCREST — A year ago, LeeAnn O’Neil-Ocampo had a vision for Leroy Haagen Community Park in east Vancouver: a plot of fresh soil for neighbors to harvest vegetables.
That vision took form with the opening of a community garden earlier this spring at the park at Northeast 136th Avenue and Northeast Ninth Street.
What the Fircrest Neighborhood Association secretary didn’t foresee for her slice of Mother Earth? Senseless vandalism.
The morning of May 7, community gardeners arrived to find vegetables ripped from the ground and tossed aside. Wooden boards supporting raised plant beds were unearthed and dismantled. String separating the garden plots was yanked out.
Half of the 24 plots either had items broken or plants uprooted.
The vandalism prompted the neighborhood association, in conjunction with the Vancouver Police Department, to offer a $100 reward for information leading to the arrest of the vandal or vandals.
Police haven’t yet made an arrest, but are investigating leads.
The damage has the community gardeners on edge, O’Neil-Ocampo said. One of the gardeners even backed out, in part because of the vandalism. Others have expressed worry.
“It put distrust into it. More people are leery of sharing with neighbors,” she said. Fortunately, though, “it hasn’t stopped” the gardening.
Destruction of plots is a widespread frustration as the number of Clark County’s community gardens multiply and enjoy newfound popularity. Jane Tesner-Kleiner, Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation’s parks manager, said vandalism has emerged at many of the county’s five community gardens over the last two years.
It’s a senseless crime, she said, with effects surpassing the minimal monetary damages.
“For some residents, this is one of their [important] food sources,” she said. “Any vandalism really is heartbreaking.”
Past vandalism
Though vandalism to community gardens is new, destruction of parks isn’t.
In the past, O’Neil-Ocampo said vandals have ripped bark from trees at Haagen Park “numerous times” and broken limbs to the point the trees had to be replaced.
One of the community gardeners and a fellow Fircrest Neighborhood Association member, Bill McFee, said he doesn’t know why someone would want to vandalize a garden but suspects it’s being done merely out of mischief.
It could be juveniles “who aren’t supervised,” he said. “They don’t have anything to do.”
Vancouver police Cpl. Charlie Ford, a neighborhood police officer in east Vancouver, agreed.
Whoever’s doing it: “They don’t really think it’s a crime,” he said. “They don’t realize how much work and effort goes into the garden.”
Neighborhood activists and police plan to crack down. They’ve enlisted Neighbors on Watch volunteers to patrol the park during night hours. Those with information should call Fircrest Neighborhood Association President Jesse Magana at 360-254-4205.
Despite the rocky start, O’Neil-Ocampo is optimistic the community garden will weather the vandalism.
“It’s a great program,” she said. “I hope it takes off and we continue next year.”
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
