A tree fell on the fence at the Golden Gardens dog park sometime overnight or early this morning.
Diane emailed us these photos and says the tree fell on the fence as well as one of the entrances to the dog park.
Dewey Potter with the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation tells us that the tree has since been removed, cut up and chipped for use in shrub beds at Seattle parks. A fence crew is making “a temporary repair to contain our canine friends,” Potter says, “A section will need to be replaced, and our maintenance manager has put in a work order to get that done.”
Tree falls and damages fence at dog park
A tree also fell at Shilshole the other day. The loop that goes into/around the park was shut off since the tree fell about 45 feet from the driveway going up. I wonder why all the dead trees?
I bet the Ballard Chamber of Commerce did this.
This is proof why you shouldn’t let your doggies pee on those trees near the off-leash park.
My neighbor’s mutt always peed on my rhody & it fell over.
I remember being peed on by the pooch I had as a kid & I fell over, too.
If your doggies really feel the need to pee on something outside the fence, how about doing Ballard a favor & have them pee on the public “art” at Bergen Place?
Good thing nobody cut it down or trimmed it first huh. I mean this tree is somebodies mother. It cared about you. I cared about everything. Probably even voted for democrats. How will we get by today knowing that tree isn’t with us any longer? Time to play Feelings on my accordian, again.
@Kat: The big-leaf maples in much of Seattle, which came up after the old-growth forests were cleared, are about at the end of their lifespans, and they tend to break badly in heavy wind (which is why they’re now prohibited as street trees in the City). Take a walk in Carkeek or Discovery and you’re certain to see a few of them that have recently fallen, especially if it’s been windy.
If you go to those parks, you’ll also probably notice newly planted cedars, hemlocks and the like. That’s the City’s attempt to recreate natural succession. After a disturbance, trees like big-leafs come up quickly, while evergreens regrow slowly; when the big-leafs die, the evergreens are ready to take over. Since these areas were stripped bare by our forebears, few or no evergreens were left to regrow, so the City has to plant them.
And if you’re wondering why the city doesn’t cut down all the trees that might fall down, just take a look around any park in this city: probably 75% of the trees are big-leafs. It’d be ridiculously expensive, not to mention ugly, if the city removed all the trees that are at some risk of falling. Makes more sense to just get rid of hazard trees (e.g. those that might fall on houses, parking lots, power lines, playgrounds) and leave the rest to fall on their own (and provide wildlife habitat and nutrients while they decay).
Perhaps this tree, with its proximity to the dog park, should have been cut or trimmed. But whenever there’s a wooded area nearby, you should always be aware that a tree could fall. Keep your eyes and ears open.