American Elm Tree becomes Play Equipment
Bernheim only removes trees after careful deliberation. We recently removed a magnificent American elm (Ulmus americana) that was a favorite tree of many staff and visitors because of public safety. It was a sad but necessary removal of a tree that was dropping limbs and that had a weak structure showing signs of catastrophic failure.
We have trained ourselves to look at the architecture of trees that are scheduled for removal through the lens of potential play equipment. We are looking for several things:
- Soundness – is the wood strong enough for play
- Interesting architecture – might it be cut in such a way that it will sit stable in a play environment
- Logistics – can we move the piece we want or is it too heavy
- Playability – how might it add play value in our playground
We were able to identify two of the major branches with a “Y” shaped structure to move to our playground. Here are some photos of that effort.
