It may not actually be spring in Toronto yet, but it sure feels like it now that the sun is out, the birds are chirping, and the city's parks are a muddy mess — more of a mess than is usual or necessary, people seem to think.

Residents have been flagging some needless destruction of green spaces around the city this month, which appears to be the work of City staff who are driving their trucks on the grass and tearing up the soil.

@311Toronto Can we have the City Maintenance / @TorontoPFR vehicles use the road to enter parks and not cut across the grass which destroys the top soil?

Please fix it: South West corner of Alexandra Park, South of Bathurst and Dundas. Thanks.#bettermycity @BetterMyCity pic.twitter.com/aeoJempg5y

— HotPopRobot: Tech4Good Ocean-Space-Earth-Society (@wonrobot) February 23, 2024

Multiple individuals walking through their local park have shared photos on socials of deep, mucky tire ruts that show someone has indeed driven around these spaces with little to no care for the marks they leave behind.

In some cases, it looks like vehicles drove off designated pathways, ruining areas seemingly without reason.

This is a chronic problem, and it's a black eye on @TorontoPFR and City Hall. https://t.co/HypjVrLkgD

— Alex Bozikovic (@alexbozikovic) February 23, 2024

While passersby are finding the problem to be particularly bad this month — perhaps because of the fact that it's happening so early in the year — others are more angry that this is seemingly allowed every spring as the City prepares our parks for the warmer months.

"It is shocking that this is allowed to continue year after year. Seems to be a definite culture problem at Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation," someone tweeted in response to the images.

"It seems more pronounced lately. Like there should be protocols to follow with park vehicles entering parkland, especially during winter. Maybe stay on designated roads, sheesh," another added.

Citizens identified Dufferin Grove Park, Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Alexandra Park and High Park as particularly unkempt right now.

I visit High Park frequently, and see this all the time. Vehicles park on the greenspace instead of on the internal road, which is 5 metres away. Parks needs to manage their employees better.

— Jim Gough 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@JimGoughTrans) February 24, 2024

On the subject, a spokesperson for the City told blogTO that "there are occasions where vehicles must drive onto parklands to facilitate and complete important work. As part of our annual orientation training, we cover the requirements for safe operation of vehicles in parks."

"Wherever possible, staff are instructed to drive and park on service roads and are asked to limit driving onto parkland, aiming to do so only when absolutely needed," they added.

The irony is that Toronto's parks, recreation and forestry department ostensibly has a mandate to care for and nurture these parks and green spaces but while "working" in them they are destroying them.

— is Pepsi ok? (@djwesallen) February 23, 2024

Still, parkgoers seem to think that the employees being assigned to protect and maintain these spaces are not doing the best job as custodians and carers for the land — and, in some cases, "do more damage to the parks than users do" while performing their tasks.

Some are calling for a larger shakeup of the parks department, more oversight of (and consequences for) workers doing their jobs, and other changes.

Confused why we need trucks for maintenance when there are cargo bikes that can basically do it all. These cargo bike examples below should be standard vehicles for @TorontoPFR Let’s invest in vehicles that won’t harm people and won’t destroy the investment we put into our parks. pic.twitter.com/NBMrTxvaEF

— Lanrick Bennett Jr. (@LanrickBennett) February 23, 2024

The City says that turf repair work at its hundreds of parks will be completed in the (actual) spring.