Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

Less than 24 hours from when a group of about 50 hikers carried a 15-foot Christmas tree to the summit of Camelback Mountain on the day after Thanksgiving, someone cut it in half and stole the top and park rangers removed the bottom half, cutting short an annual tradition beloved by many.

For years, people have put ornaments on cactuses and bushes to celebrate the holidays along the popular hiking spot, and various groups have placed small Christmas trees at the top.

Joel Borch said this is the fourth year he has helped organize a group to buy and carry a large tree to the top, this time snagging a $600 tree and spending four hours taking turns hauling it up the trail.

"People don’t even believe we hike it up there. They think maybe a helicopter brought it up there 'cause it’s so big," he said. "That hike's really tough, and when you get to the top and see this beautiful Christmas tree, it's awesome. People are so happy."

The hikers dressed as elves to carry the tree and celebrated at the top with eggnog. But it was gone by 10 a.m. the next day.

Now, the group started a Change.org petition asking Phoenix to allow a tree on top of Camelback Mountain. The petition received nearly 1,000 signatures in a day, and they plan to present it at a Phoenix City Council meeting on Wednesday.

A tradition with Camelback Santa

Every year, Borch works with John Cressey, who many know as Camelback Santa. Cressey climbs the mountain every weekend in December to hand out candy canes and pose by the tree.

There are more than 2,000 Instagram posts with the hashtag #camelbacksanta of people posing with Cressey and the tree.

Borch is a manager at the Beverly, a Scottsdale restaurant that sponsored the tree this year and posted a video on Facebook of the tree haul with a caption about it being taken down.

By the time they walked up the tree last year, three other small ones were already at the top, Borch said, adding that the city removed the others but let his stay.

Park rangers "have been there in the past. ... They always said, 'Hey, it's cool, we love what you guys are doing.' They’ve never had an issue," Borch said. "I don’t want to get in trouble. I don’t want to seem like I’m littering."

Borch said this was the first year he contacted city officials in advance and was under the impression that they did not need a permit and it was OK to put up a tree.

When they got to the trail Friday morning, park rangers initially said they couldn't take it up, but Borch said he talked with their supervisor and eventually was given the OK.

"It was so disheartening to wake up and find out that thing had been chopped down," he said. "It was very deceptive on their part. Why would they let us do it just to go chop it down? It hurt."

Someone stole top half of tree

Someone cut off the top half of the tree and stole it, so Phoenix park ranger staff removed the bottom half of the tree and the tree stand and decorations, Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department spokesman Gregg Bach said Tuesday evening.

Cressey also said he heard from various people, many in the Parks Department, who said rangers did not cut the tree but only removed it after someone else cut it.

"My gut reaction was that it was a hate crime related to the different religious symbols we had on the tree. I hope I’m wrong," he said. For years, he's had a Star of David on the tree, and this year added an Islamic symbol.

"I don’t care to find out who did it; I just want to spread Christmas and holiday joy to everyone in the Valley and all of the tourists," he said.

Parks Department: Safety hazard, littering

Phoenix park ranger staff removed the tree for the same reasons they remove flags and other items from various trails: It's a safety hazard and it's littering, Bach said.

"It has nothing to do with it being a tree or specific item … we just ask people don’t take items up there, place them up there and leave them behind," he said. "This is something we deal with every year, and our staff remove it every year."

The group carrying a 15-foot tree "up a 4-foot-wide trail which is a double-black-diamond trail, one of the three most difficult in the city, it's obviously causing a safety hazard to the group carrying it up there and other trail users."

Tree decorations that fall off are litter just like water bottles or orange peels, Bach said.

"People that are leaving anything behind on our trails and desert parks and mountain preserves is something that is frustrating to us as we work to maintain (the) natural state of those properties."

Photos from the tree's happier days