Conservation group, Daintree Life, have been left devastated after around 400 newly planted trees were destroyed by vandals in the Daintree last month.

Daintree Life have been helping to revegetate the rainforest by replacing weeds on old unused service roads and reserves north of the river with rainforest trees.

Dave Pinson from Daintree Life said they had experienced ongoing low-level vandalism of signs, posts, and chains for over a year before this instance which saw the 400 trees pulled from the ground and left to die on the old service road the group was working on including much of what Costa Giorgiadis from Gardening Australia planted some months back.

“Whoever is doing this has just taken it to a new level,” Mr Pinson said.

“Sadly, many of these trees were planted by locals with us on community days.”

Mr Pinson said the total cost of the destroyed trees is at least $4000, which comes as a serious blow to their hard-fought budget funded by donations from people all over the world.

“We are deeply upset and have no idea who would do this as we mostly have great community support, and this area is surrounded by national park, with no neighbours or anyone else affected.

“We think the perpetrator is a local as the ongoing low-level vandalism has now been happening for over a year,” he said.

Mr Pinson said it is particularly sad as much of the groups funding comes from generous community donations.

“A ten-year-old boy donated all his pocket money to plant a tree. His mum was so proud.

“There was a woman who planted many trees in memorial to her recently deceased mum. A lovely old Italian gentleman who donates one tree per week from across the world. A retired lady in the USA who donates one tree per month. A local workplace who donated 25 trees in honour of a workmate's deceased mother, people who have donated for friend's birthdays, weddings, the birth of babies, anniversaries, and the list goes on.”

“This has hit us hard after so much time, money and effort has gone into planting - all destroyed in just one night.

“However, we are also heartened by so many positive messages, comments and phone calls from so many local residents, with many offers to help us restore the damage.”

Daintree Life have reported the damage to the Douglas Shire Council and the police and urge anyone with information to contact local police or Daintree Life themselves.