LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A grove of trees that had provided some shelter for homeless men at a camp in west Lincoln has been removed.

City finance director Steve Hubka sasi the Lincoln Police Department recommended cutting down the trees to make the site less inviting. The land is owned by the West Haymarket Joint Public Agency.

Hubka says around a dozen men would gather under the trees during the day and up to 20 would spend the night there in tents or in a mud hut. He says there was a lot of drinking at the site, and police had reported assaults and other crimes on the land. The Salt Creek Levee trail runs along the property.