‘It’s hard to stomach:’ University of Wisconsin Arboretum staff react to rare tree theft, as police nail down a timeline

The caretaker of the the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens where the 25-foot Algonquin Pillar Swiss Mountain pine was sawed down, David Stevens, said the trees at the arboretum carry as much meaning as they do beauty, and are used for research. “It’s hard to stomach,” Stevens said.