Post-mortem on the freshly cutback American elm in Tompkins Square Park

Photos by and reporting by Stacie Joy 

On Tuesday, the Parks Department cut back the drooping American elm inside the Seventh Street entrance to Tompkins Square Park between Avenue A and Avenue B. 

Before this happened, I had reached out to urban forestry expert Georgia Silvera Seamans, founder of Local Nature Lab. (Read her initial response here.) 

As she's out of town, I sent her several of the photos of the trimmed back tree. Her response: "Looks like there was a major crack in a large branch. It also looks like staining from Dutch Elm Disease on the left front branch."