Tagged message with kind intent leaves ugly marks at Carson City's Riverview Park
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Tue, 02/16/2021 - 2:38pm
Though the sentiment was nice, the graffiti vandalism discovered last week on downed trees at Carson City's Riverview Park left more anger than smiles for Bianca Blohme, a volunteer who helps keep the park clean.
Blohme and her husband discovered the red paint tagging of "I believe" "love" and "peace" on some of the large, naturally decaying trees while at the park on Friday.
"People who want to express themselves can find a better way than ruining our nature, especially using toxic chemicals which erode into the earth and can affect the creatures living there," said Blohme, who regularly volunteers as part of the Mutt Mitt campaign to keep dog droppings off hiking trails.
"Even though the words are kind, the way they are presented is harmful," she said.
After documenting what they found, Blohme contacted Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space, and got a reply back from Park Ranger Tyler Kerver, who thanked her for bringing the tagging to their attention and promised a prompt cleanup.
"We educate the public about best Leave No Trace practices the best we can on our social media platforms and while out in the field," Kerver replied. "Unfortunately, we are unable to reach the entire community. Thank you for spreading the word. When we find these kinds of issues, we do our best to clean them up before others get the same idea."
The messages have since been cleaned up.
Blohme says she wants to get the message out that however kind the intent was, vandalism is still vandalism. She believes the tagging may have been done by youth.
She said calling attention to the vandalism should serve as a reminder for parents to warn their children that tagging anything, including trees — even if the message is of a positive nature — is still illegal and downright ugly in the natural environment.
If caught, Blohme suggests the perpetrators should do community service, such as doing what she and other volunteers do regularly, which is picking up dog poo that trail users leave behind, and don't place into bags and trash cans provided by Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space.
Park Ranger Kerver notes that since the pandemic began the department has seen an increase in the amount of painted rocks on the trailheads and along the trails.
"Normally they are positive messages, where people are taking home the rocks, painting them and placing back along the hiking trails," he said.
While the sentiment is nice, it does go against Leave No Trace practices, which among them, include not taking anything natural from trails or open space and to just leave things as they are.
"If you find a cool looking rock, just leave it there for others to see. We want to have the areas left as natural as possible, so we don't want any painted rocks or painted trees," Kerver said. "We don't want anything out there that wasn't out there before."
