City removes two American elms from Clark St.

By Brandi Makuski

Stevens Point is whittling down, so to speak, the ailing American elm trees among its stock.

Two of the largest remaining American elm street trees, located on the 1200 block of Clark St., were taken down on March 11.

Both trees were in rough shape, according to the city forester.

“Both elms have been significantly declining at least the last five years,” said Forester Todd Ernster this week. “We’ve been doing a lot of dead wooding annually. Bark was falling off, and decay fungi was [sic] growing in the upper reaches of the trees.”

Ernster’s department has been preserving the trees since before the road was reconstructed in 1999 — and had been injecting both to protect against Dutch elm disease even before that. Still, both became a safety concern, he said.

“Given the location of the trees and the amount of vehicle and pedestrian traffic there, the time unfortunately came to remove the trees,” Ernster said. “Nobody fought more to keep those trees; I absolutely dreaded making the decision, but it was also absolutely the right decision.”

Although their trunks, measuring about four-and-a-half feet by 48 inches, remained solid, the majority of the decay was found on the trees’ large upper limbs. The trees produced logs about 36 inches in diameter, which Ernster said could limit some portable mills.

But it’s a priority for the city’s parks, rec, and forestry department to keep the wood as local as possible. Ernster said he’s been in contact with UWSP and companies in Madison and the Fox Valley, all of whom could use the wood for commercial and residential projects.

Ernster estimated the trees were anywhere from 80-140 years old, based on their size.

Ernster said several new “true American elms” are being planted across the city — different from the elm variants that are more susceptible to Dutch elm disease, these are “highly resistant.”

Stevens Point has 76 true American elms lining city streets, as well as 128 Asiatic varieties of elms that are highly resistant to Dutch elm disease, with many more in city parks.

Ernster welcomes ideas for using the wood, so anyone with ideas should contact him at 715-346-1532.