Cre(a)ps occupy a strange spot between trees and shrubs and folks seem to randomly attack them.

Nice bark on that one btw.

DcsTREES, you'll find many many posts about the evilness of crape-murder here. You're preach'n to the choir, but feel free! There are two stores, here locally, that planted similar crape myrtles about the same time just across the street from one another. One store hires crape-butchers to come and hack on their crapes every year. The other store lets them grow naturally, with only minimal pruning. The store that leaves their crapes alone has such beautiful plants. The other store's landscape goes from looking horrid (after the butchery) to so-so (after the crapes leaf out and start looking weird but slightly better).

What's much worse is the way they butcher mature willow oaks down here....so sad to see a beautiful mature willow oak topped.

NC has, or used to have, a very active and involved urban forestry 'posse '. I see that the North Carolina Urban Forest Council is (NCUFC) still going strong. If you aren't already a member, think about becoming involved. A good organization can help you in many ways.

If your community has a local newspaper and/or television stations, you may be in a position to do some pubic education....IF you are a good writer and public speaker.

Type 'North Carolina Crape Murder ' into Google and you'll find several Extension publications on the subject. Make it a more general 'crape murder ' search and you'll hit the jackpot. You can copy the articles and distribute them far and wide.

Your local Extension people may be able to help with publications, newsletters, or even workshops. In my experience, winter pruning workshops for the public can be very popular. If you educate the public, they can help protect your community against ignorant pruning practices.

If your local public works department is responsible for crapes on public property....get those articles to the people in charge, and the mayor.

Are you an interested citizen or in the business? The tree in your post has been permanently ruined. It will never have the beautiful structure it was meant to.

Well, most people don't even know how to properly prune, in general.

(How you're supposed to cut down close to the collar, without actually cutting into or stripping any bark off from it - to allow the tree to "scab" over its "wound.")

Here is a link that might be useful: How to prune

I like that video, Blakrab! I think I may start linking to it when people ask about pruning on here.

There are a few places near me that regularly murder their Crapes. I solace myself by looking at my own unbutchered collection.