Authorities in Canada are looking for poachers who hacked up an 800-year-old cedar tree in southern Vancouver, striking into it multiple times in a year.

 

The tree, according to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, was just the latest in a series chopped and poached after a wave of cutbacks in the parks budget.

 

Poachers had repeatedly attacked the centuries-old tree, but were never able to hack through it enough to take it.

 

But it was so badly damaged that park workers had to cut it down themselves.

 

The tree was left at the site where it was chopped down so it could decompose and give nutrients back to the soil, MSNBC.com reported.

 

But the poachers hurt that operation as well.

 

“Since then, the cedar poachers have returned at their leisure, cut up, hauled out and taken away much of the tree,” the committee said in a press release.

 

The fight over park ranger funding has exploded in recent months in the Canadian Parliament. Liberals argue that it’s irresponsible to cut the funding, while the conservative side refuses to pay the amount of money it would take to hire as many rangers as needed, the Canadian Press reported.

 

Meanwhile, the investigation into the poachers has gone nowhere.

 

With evidence slim, park officials told the Canadian Press they don’t have a lot to work with.

 

“There’s not much we can investigate since we have no physical evidence or description of offenders, and once wood is removed from the forest, it’s extremely difficult to track where it came from,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Dave Voller said.