July 25, 2002
Washington elm gets a trim
Arborists spent part of last week trying to repair a structural problem in the campus’ Washington elm. According to Grounds Supervisor Bonnie Taylor, the elm has two co-dominant main stems, making it prone to splitting at the notch of those stems. The grounds crew had earlier bolted the stems together and installed cabling to support the tree, but the cabling had broken. So it was decided to do some light thinning of some of the branches and to remove a major limb to lessen the weight being supported. New, much higher cabling is being installed for support. Said Taylor, “It’s still a healthy tree, so we think it will do fine.” The Washington Elm — located between Communications and Clark — is a scion of the elm tree under which legend says George Washington took command of the Continental Army on July 3, 1775.
