Dear Neighbors, Recently, someone hacked the lower branches off several of the dawn redwoods that the City of Pittsburgh planted in the Mellon Terrace parklet a few years ago. These trees are intended to provide mature trees in future years as the older trees already in the parklet reach the ends of their lives. They are beautiful trees and it's sad to see them defaced. As one of the people who helped get the city to plant them, I was especially dismayed. If you know anything about how this happened, please let me know and I will pass the information along to Tree Pittsburgh, a group that helps coordinate neighborhood tree plantings (such as those which have put trees along Highland Ave., Stanton, and other neighborhood streets in Highland Park in recent years. If you see anyone doing damage to trees, if you feel comfortable doing so, you might ask them to stop. By all means, report the incident to the police if you don't care to accost the person or if the vandal ignores you. It is a crime for anyone to cut or prune city trees without authorization from the city. The Tree Pittsburgh staff have cut off the branch stumps the vandals left and fenced in the trees to deter further attacks. Best wishes, Caroline Acker 5 Highland Court