The vice chairman of the State College Borough Tree Commission spoke to borough council Monday night about the ongoing problem of tree vandalism downtown.

Marc McDill, professor in the School of Forest Resources at Penn State, said tree vandalism involves ripping the limbs off smaller trees and knocking them over.

McDill said vandalism is more prevalent downtown than on campus, possibly because of the proximity of the bars. Council members agreed that much of the vandalism occurs when students are intoxicated.

"Teenagers and college students have too much to drink, and they take it out on the trees," McDill said. "We have to educate people that destroying trees is not an acceptable behavior."

McDill said the commission loses a lot of young trees annually to tree vandalism. He said to combat this behavior, the commission hopes to get students involved in tree planting. Through education, the commission hopes fewer trees will be vandalized.

Borough Arborist Alan Sam said a study of the extent of the tree vandalism was completed about 10 to 15 years ago, and at that time, 10 to 15 percent of the trees in the borough were lost each year to vandalism.

Sam said the primary areas that are vandalized were areas downtown, by the State College Area High School and in the Highlands neighborhood near Fraternity Row.

Council Member Ron Filippelli said he thought it was interesting that there was not as much tree vandalism on campus as there is downtown.

"Isn't it curious that students aren't damaging trees on campus," Filippelli said. "Campus is beautiful and has many species of trees and is very vulnerable."