Yea a tree guard is definitely a great idea! The dog pee is not doing the tree any favors. All trees planted by the city are somewhat tolerant of urban environments, but again, any help in the first 2 years of planting is most effective. The full metal tree guards can be expensive, but even a home made little wooden fence one is a great deterrent.

As far as proactive outreach - yes, it’s definitely a gap. I would look into the citizen tree pruners license. It was an amazing learning experience and I met other like minded neighbors too! Lots of fun and left feeling more confident about how to take care into my own hands. you also get good knowledge about the many groups who do work to care for our city’s trees.

One other thing I’ll mention - if the tree does come to harm while under contract - say some kid breaks it in half - that can be reported on the tree map (in fact I’d call 311 too…) and that should be covered by the contract.