Runners first discovered the scene early Thursday morning: dozens of newly planted trees along a stretch of Shepard Road in downtown St. Paul were either uprooted, damaged or tossed into the Mississippi River in what is being called a “senseless” act of vandalism.

In all, 60 of the 250 trees that were planted last month along the road’s paved trail as part of an effort that involved the city, local high school students and Tree Trust were damaged or destroyed.

“We’re very disappointed,” said Jared Smith, executive director and CEO of Tree Trust, a St. Paul-based nonprofit. “I mean, it just makes no sense.”

It’s unclear whether the damage was done late Wednesday or early Thursday, said St. Paul Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Clare Cloyd. Damages are expected to top $40,000, she said.

“It seems like a senseless act,” she said, adding she’s never seen anything like it in her 10 years with the city.

St. Paul police are investigating. The vandals were aided by the cover of darkness since most of the streetlights along Shepard remain inoperable after being damaged by copper-wire thieves last year.

Over the MEA break, which was Oct. 17-18, 37 students from nine St. Paul high schools worked with Tree Trust to plant trees between Randolph Avenue and Wabasha Street, where scores of trees had been lost to the invasive emerald ash borer in recent years. The teens were working as part of a city workforce training program.

“The city has invested a lot in this job, this workforce training program that teaches young people about the value of hard work and stewarding the environment and the importance of putting in canopy for the city after the losses of emerald ash borer,” Smith said.

The vandalism has left everyone involved feeling defeated, he said.

“To see someone come along and wantonly destroy and damage, it’s kind of beyond comprehension,” he said.

Parks officials were able to salvage about 15 of trees that weren’t entirely destroyed or “floating in the river,” Cloyd said.

The city’s forestry team and a crew from Tree Trust, along with some of the teens who had planted the trees, were back out Thursday replanting, Smith said.

“And we’re working with the city to figure out what we’re going to do long term to potentially replace those trees,” he said.