Recent vandalism and destruction at McIntyre Creek have left those working to restore the area confused, angry and looking for answers.

"Personally, I've never seen this kind of wholesale, calculated attack,” Gord Zealand, executive director of the Yukon Fish and Game Association, told the Star this morning.

The association has been leading the restoration work.

Sometime last week, vandals pulled out every single willow stake on the south side of the restoration site.

Between 50 and 75 stakes, set to grow into young trees, were destroyed, as well as more than a year's worth of work done by volunteers from multiple conservation organizations.

The vandals then left a vulgar note on the project's sign.

"It's the emotion of it all that's hard. You thought you had done something good that was working,” Zealand said.

"But why would someone want to destroy that? What have we done to make people so upset?”

McIntyre Creek is used by a number of fish, including chinook salmon, Arctic grayling and introduced rainbow trout.

A ford, or shallow section of water, was used for years by motorized vehicles to cross the creek.

In 2010, a bridge was built to enable ATVs and similar vehicles to cross without doing damage.

The goal of the restoration project was to grow plants on both banks at the site to help stabilize the ground and stop erosion.

The project area covers about 6 x 15 metres on the north bank, and 10 x 15 metres on the south bank, for a total of 240 square metres.

Live staking involves cutting pieces of wood from dormant adult parent plants and planting those stakes into the ground.

With proper care and attention, those stakes grow into adult trees.

The McIntyre Creek area became a passionately personal project for the many volunteers involved, including some who would come in on their own time and water the plants by hand, Zealand said.

And their work was paying off – the plants were beginning to grow.

"They did take,” he said. "We'd taken on an area that had been seriously damaged and we were able to get things to grow there.”

The distasteful graffiti found on the project's sign suggests the vandals misinterpreted the intention of the stakes.

The language used has been cleaned up to make it suitable for print:

"To whatever person is putting spikes in the ground you will be charged and thrown in jail for attempting to cause bodily harm and probably slapped with intent on property damage.”

Zealand said the idea that the stakes are there to impede motorized vehicles is inaccurate.

"We support all sorts of outdoor activities; that's why we supported the building of the bridge in the first place,” he said.

About $20,000 was spent on the total restoration project, mostly through a grant from Environment Canada.

The stakes were planted last summer by volunteers from a number of groups, including Zealand's group, Yukon College, Friends of McIntyre Creek and various youth groups.

"People were invested; they had worked hard,” Zealand said.

This is not the first time the area has been plagued by vandalism. The planted area was protected by a fence which has been knocked down more than once.

City bylaw officials are investigating, and the RCMP are encouraging anyone with information to come forward.

"People who commit senseless acts of vandalism have no place in the community,”Whitehorse RCMP Sgt. Don Rogers said today.

Meanwhile, groups involved in the project will be be getting together sometime this fall to decide what their next step is, Zealand said.

"It's hard to understand – you're trying to make a difference, and someone just shows up with no consideration for that.”