Concerned community members wrapped two trees along Main Street with blankets last month to protest the trees’ removal. 

A craft group known as the Knitting Ninjas carried out the “yarn bomb” in response to Main Street Lexington’s renovation of Courthouse Square. According to Main Street Lexington’s website, the changes include repositioning the Veterans’ Memorial in front of the courthouse, creating terraces filled with new plants, and adding new trees. But the project also includes tearing down two maple trees.

A yarn bomb is a form of street art that aims to bring color to urban areas. The Knitting Ninjas used a blanket featuring the Dr. Seuss character the Lorax and a second with ladybugs and eyes.

Since the Knitting Ninjas yarn bomb went up, multiple letters to the editor published in The News-Gazette have protested the removal of the maple trees. One letter to the editor said, “Both might use some trimming but not a single branch on either one of them looks to be in bad health. So, why do they need to go?”

In an email to the Phi, project chair Jesse Lyons said, “The County Board of Supervisors endorsed the plan in 2024 and at the end of 2024, the City Council approved the project with Main Street conducting it as a fiscal agent of the City.”.

But some citizens say Lyons’ committee didn’t communicate enough with the public. “Most people are overwhelmed with information in their daily lives,” said Ellie Boylan, one of the Knitting Ninjas who helped to yarn bomb the two trees within the courtyard.

“I wanted to bring awareness that they were chopping down trees. If it made them reconsider, it would make me very happy because I love those trees,” she said.

Lyons said his team is required by contract to complete the project. “We are currently under contracted to complete it as designed, approved by the City and with the county’s support for the Veteran’s Memorial relocation.”

And he said a lot of thought has gone into adding new plants and trees.

“More than 1,300 plugs of native plantings are also scheduled to be planted within the Square, leading to a lush, native space for the community,” Lyons said.

Boylan said her primary concern is that the planning committee is not saying whether the maple trees are sick or diseased. Boylan said that, according to a committee member she spoke to, the trees are mature, but it’s the renovations to the courtyard and Veterans’ Memorial that will damage the roots and lead to the removal.

But according to the Main Street Lexington Website, two International Society of Arboriculture certified arborists inspected the two maple trees and determined that, due to their age and location, one tree is in decline and the other will shortly follow.

Boylan also said the new trees are not native to Virginia. The Main Street Lexington webpage says that the new trees will be ginkgo trees and regal prince oaks. Ginkgo trees are native to China, while the Regal Prince Oaks are hybrids of native Swamp White Oak and non-native English Oak.

Construction continues at the Courthouse and Veterans’ Memorial. Both trees still stand,  but Boylan removed the blankets because she did not want them destroyed as construction moves closer to bringing them down.