GM came across this bike on 30th St. just above M St. It’s locked to a small tree, which is a real jerk move.
Someone left a note for the bike owner saying “Trees are not bike racks. Move the bike or it will be considered abandoned and lock will be cut”. This isn’t really the correct use of the DDOT abandoned bike rules, but it is true that you shouldn’t lock bikes to trees. It cuts away at the bark and can seriously harm the tree, particularly if it’s young. Sometimes the tree is so young that thieves simply chop the tree down to get to the bike. Then the bike is stolen AND the tree is dead.
There was another, smaller note on the message: “Georgetown has NO bike racks. -A passerby”. While it is not true that there are NO bike racks, it is true that there are not enough. It’s a problem that the BID is trying to solve with the installation of bike corrals on some streets off of M. (M St. sidewalks are far too small and overcrowded with pedestrians to install bike racks there.)
Nonetheless, even when there are no bike racks available, there are almost always better options than locking your bike to a tree. In this particular case, the bike could have been locked to the tree box surrounding the tree. Or to at least three street signs all within 20 feet of this tree
So again: please don’t lock your bike to trees.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
I’ve always thought a WABA/Casey Trees (or Trees for Georgetown) partnership to get more bike racks on residential sidewalks would have a lot of mutual benefits.