Sadness and dismay at the Essex Region Conservation Authority.
ERCA Spokesperson Danielle Breault Stuebing says a notable Indigenous Signal Tree was destroyed over the weekend at Maidstone Woods Conservation Area.
"The nose or the arrow part of it has now been blown up essentially and the vertical piece is missing," says Breault Stuebing.
The tree is believed to be in the area for hundreds of years.
She says it appears someone set off fireworks in the tree's hallow.
"We learned from Lakeshore fire about this incident and we're very devastated to learn that this very notable Indigenous Signal Tree had been destroyed most likely as a result of vandalism. Someone setting off fireworks inside the tree's hollow and in fact blowing the tree up from the inside out," says Breault Stuebing.
She says it was a notable tree in the community and a heritage tree pointing out over the last decade, many people have had photographs around the tree.
She says Indigenous people used signal trees to point at all kinds of things such as villages, camps, water sources and rivers.
It was also used to mark boundaries between different communities.
Breault Stuebing says it was the only signal tree in the conservation's 4000 acres of land.
She says ERCA believes there is another one located close to the Kingsville Golf Course.
ERCA is asking anyone with information to call police.
— With files from AM800's Rob Hindi & Peter Langille