A Northwest D.C. resident claims to be the latest victim of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s conservation corps — thousands of District youth in blue shirts wandering the streets with seemingly nothing to do, and earning $7.25 an hour from the city while they do it.

James Carstensen left his Park View home last week for a quick jaunt to Fort Totten. He returned 40 minutes later, he said Monday, to find the crape myrtle tree he planted five years earlier in memory of his grandmother lying on the ground in front of his home. Moments later, Carstensen said, he spotted “blue shirts with loppers” walking about a block away.