Here are photos of the items that were brought in by club members to the September 2007 meeting

During the summer of 2007, the Fargo Public Library is scheduled for demolition and will be re-built.  Since the new library will be larger, the 19 flowering crab apple trees (planted in 1970) that surrounded the building needed to be removed for construction.  Our organization's officers agreed that this would be a good opportunity to get some visibility in the community, and to help out the library at the same time.  By saving the trunk sections of the trees, we are helping to preserve some of Fargo's history.  The trees will live on as turned pieces of art created by our members.  No matter what your skill level, we'd like to have each member turn one or two items to donate back to the library.  Contact us to determine where you can pick up some of this wood to turn. 

This project was brought to our attention by Guy Paulson.  Guy contacted Jim McTavish a few weeks ago, and Jim was able to follow up the city of Fargo library's interim director Beth Postema on preserving the trees after they would be removed. 

A special thanks goes out to everyone who volunteered to assist with acquiring the trees from the library.  And thanks to Cliff Storsved for taking the photos at the Library!

Click on the images below for a larger view...

	A Fargo Forestry Department employee drops the limbs from one of the crab apple trees that will be removed
	Tree being trimmed closer to the trunk section
	Only the main trunk sections are saved, the limbs are removed slightly above the main crotch of the tree.
	Minn-Dak Woodturners members: From left to right: Keith Klev, Don Olson , Ron Williams, Bob Rogne, and Norm Diede take a break after cutting the trunk sections into manageable pieces.
	Keith Klev coats the sawn sections with Anchorseal (end grain sealer)
	Keith Klev, Ron Williams, and Norm Diede
	Henry Lay , Jim Kjelstrup, and Bob Rogne transporting the cut section to a waiting trailer.
	Norm Diede assists with dropping the main trunk.
	Norm has his hands full getting the trunk section to drop.

 

We'd like to thank the Fargo Forestry Department employees for doing an excellent job in saving as much wood as possible!  Great job guys!

The trees were removed on July 30th, 2007.

The following was obtained from the Fargo Forums web site:

The crab apple tree in the foreground is one of many chopped down Monday outside the closed downtown main library building. Dave Janssen, left, of the Fargo Forestry Department, cuts the trunk of a crab apple tree while Bob Rogne of the Fargo-Moorhead Woodturners Association picks up pieces of lumber to make permanent pieces of art. Contractors will begin demolition of Fargo's main library Wednesday.
Photo by Jay Pickthorn / The Forum