Reached out to Forestry and submitted a SeeClickFix report. They responded quickly and are going to check on the tree, which I appreciate
They also gave the okay to temporarily fence it off, so I handled that this morning. Hoping the tree survives and bounces back
Whole thing put me in a bad mood, but actually helping fix the situation instead of just ranting about it makes it better
Went to Lafayette Park today and saw one of the newly planted cherry blossom trees knocked over and chewed up by a dog
Not only did the owner apparently let their dog do this, but they also just left it there on the ground without even attempting to stand it back up or report it. Absolute POS behavior. If your dog destroys public landscaping and your response is to walk away pretending nothing happened, you’re irresponsible and selfish
These trees were planted to improve the park for everyone in the community. They don’t magically appear there for free. People put time, money, and effort into making Lafayette Park nicer, and it takes one careless owner to damage it in a single moment
We tried to reset the tree ourselves and are going to do what we can to nurse it back to health. We’ll also be reaching out to the Parks / Forestry Department to see if they can help stabilize it properly. If possible, we’re probably going to fence it off temporarily too
If you’re a dog owner: control your dog, especially around newly planted trees and landscaping. And if your dog damages something, at least take responsibility for it instead of walking away
Really disappointing to see