July 17, 2013
Glen Scott, foreground, pull a rope tight as Josh Scott prepares to cut away a large limb from the American Elm tree in the back yard of the Hazel Bertsch home in Menno Wednesday afternoon, July 10. The pair, a father-son team who operate G-H Tree Service out of Wagner, were dismantling the tree at the request of the Bertsch family after the tree showed signs of distress last summer and failed to properly bud spring. The tree, which towers over the two-story home at the corner of Heil and High streets, was the largest recorded American Elm tree in South Dakota at the time it was taken down, according to the South Dakota Department of Agriculture. For more on in this story, see the July 17 issue of the print edition of the Hutchinson Herald.
PHOTO BY ERIK KAUFMAN
For more images of the Bertsch tree work, click here.