Calling out people who break down trees.

Hole #15 at Cottonwood seems to be a favorite for those tree breakers. I played yesterday and noticed a rather tall and skinny tree broken down to the ground from the hillside (elm tree). I mentioned it to someone and said how stupid it was, that they were probably laughing when they did it but most disc golfers wouldn't find it funny at all.

So today I am into a second round when I hear a tree snapping crash sound. Sure enough there is a kid yanking down yet another tree. So I am with one other guy and we start to watch these guys. At this point I see him hanging on yet another tree so I yell at him to stop breaking down trees. There are three kids maybe 18 years old and they don't take it serious. I call them morons and walk away when one kid starts acting like he wants to cause trouble. I just walk away.

Now if there are a few disc golfers in a group we generally will get the message across but since I was only with one other guy who wasn't too much of a threat I decided to just call the cops. I realized that we would be lucky if they even showed up but I just figure it can't hurt to call them. While I am waiting I just start looping out into the course and talking with other disc golfers that I know. Finally I circle back up to hole 18 where the kids are kind of hanging out. I finally get to talk with one of the kids and he doesn't really seem to get it. He answers that it is OK to break trees down because it is a public course. Then he says that he did it because his disc was stuck in this tree. The tree is so small that you could just shake the tree and any disc would fall out. It just sounds like a bunch of excuses.

Anyway, the word will get out. We don't live in a vacuum. We are a community of disc golfers and if someone thinks that they can just go around busting down trees they won't last long out there. I won't be the only one calling them out and I can't guarantee that someone else might not bust one of those kids in the chops. I hope that doesn't happen but those kids need to learn one way or another.

I shook the one kid's hand and just told him to respect the course. He was being halfway cool even though I didn't buy his excuses. Diplomacy often works best. I was just trying to let him know that if you don't do stupid things people will treat you with respect.

And the cops finally showed up, about one hour later. I knew they wouldn't be of much use. I just called them as a way of saying that what those kids were doing was not OK. Seeing the cops out there from time to time tends to keep the riff raff down as well.

[Jim Coonradt]

This whole thing kind of reminds me of that show on TV, "What Would You Do?" A lot of people complain about idiots who trash the course but I wonder if some have the courage to do anything. I have found that you have to call out people for bad behavior or else it will just continue. It is of course easier to call someone out when you are in a large group of disc golfers.

I once called out a guy for throwing his beer can on the ground and he replied that "he just wanted to pee on it". There needs to be an IQ test I think that people must pass before they are allowed to play.

[Ron Suir]

yeah that's a shitty thing to do..it's nothing more than straight up vandalism. disc stuck or not.

[Donny Olow]

Here is what I do.  If I see ANYONE , damaging the Disc Golf Course in any way , I take their Photo with my Cell phone and report them to the Course owner and the Local Police.

I also write a complete report of the type of Damage , including Any type of Vandalism , including Spray Painting Gang Signs on Teesigns , Benches and Trees , Writing things with Permanent marker on Teesigns and Benches. Carving their name or gang signs on the Teesigns and benches with a knife.

Breaking anything , including Teesigns , Benches , Baskets , Trees , Bushes.

We have been able to Ban and Arrest several Delinquents and Vandals. All the Local Police have been Appreciative

and can always use the help.

[Jim Coonradt]

Keep up the good work Donny. It does take a few people willing to go out of their way to combat this kind of thing.

Yesterday after all of this happened I started putting the word out about these guys. If they think that they are going to continue doing this kind of thing they will get a rude awakening. You can't hide if everyone knows who you are and what you are doing.

[All day Corey]

That doesn't work in Colorado. I've lived there for four and a half years. Maybe if you see the vandles in Arvada, Co near the cop shop-Jonny Roberts Memmorial Course or the Bad Lands in Federal Heights also by another police station. The deal with these examples how ever are that the course shares its space with non disc golfers. That is the common denominator. BirdsNest in west Arvada is "public land" how ever the public goes to walk their dogs at the dog park not play disc golf. White hawk in Westminster is always frequented by bicyclists and joggers with an accational animal patrol officer that rolls through to help generate revinue for the city. A.k.a. Fines for people that let their best friends run wild off the leash. Disc golf as much as we want it to be just isn't main stream enough to validate tax payer support a.k.a law enforcement. The city may actually consider free "course maintenance" a god send. At Morley Field in San Diego they have it right. Course fees. Every one that is there playing disc golf understands the sport and respects it's nuances. Course fees are not for everyone, but it solve a lot of problems. Like vandalism. I'm not saying that vandalism going to stop completely however every one that is there is generally of the same mind set, to play disc golf.

[Disc Player Sports]

Have branches and trees broken seems like all the time at the close local course.

They are trying to better their lie.

The funny thing is, they most likely will not even par the hole!

[Jim Coonradt]

The funny thing is that this small tree was on the side of a hill to the right of the tee. No matter where you land on that hillside you are going to have a bad lie. The kid might have just broken it down in frustration. Who knows. Hopefully he just takes a second to think next time and wants to avoid the hassle of people like me yelling at him.

We have really been putting a lot of effort into making the course better lately and we have even gotten the City to start dumping mulch on the course (to help prevent erosion and keep the mud down). When anyone starts breaking down trees and/or branches it just makes the place look worse and says that nobody cares for the place. Also the less trees on that hillside the more erosion is going to happen. So it is a battle to stay on top of this kind of stuff.

And of course when you have seen broken down trees in that area before and then you catch someone in the act it does raise suspicion that they were the ones doing a lot of the tree breaking. No proof of any past offenses but if you are willing to do it once...

[All day Corey]

I've noticed that treating some one with respect is always the best bet In any situation. Start off on the right foot and every thing else works it's self out. I find it ironic that people don't do this more often. Name calling starts every one off on the wrong foot. Any one that is breaking trees either doesn't know any better or doesn't care. If they don't care then you've got a problem. Your own personal well being would be the main concern. If they don't know however that what they are doing is ultimatly counter productive to their game then you've just just come across as the moron because after all it is a "public park" and they don't know any better anyway. Right? So I suppose what I'm saying is treat the situation like the people don't know. I always will offer to get the disc down for people. I meet new people by name and In the worst case scenario teach people just by the simple act alone that there are options to a given goal. All in all this is what always works for me. If name calling has worked for you in the past then by all means don't change it. Unfortunately people as a rule of thumb will respond to the lowest common denominator. Need I go on.

[All day Corey]

One more thing, how is calling someone a moron any where even remotely close to being dimplomatic. That's not the definition of diplomacy.

[Disc Player Sports]

You know down inside you would like to physically rip their head off.

But diplomacy does work as you say.

Now if that worked in world politics........

[All day Corey]

It does, how ever economics always dictate every thing in politics.

[Disc Player Sports]

He who has the gold makes the rules, unfortunately.