Necessary butchers

Chip mulch is like hamburger meat: You probably don't want to know too much about where it came from, and you certainly don't want to have to make it from scratch.






This crew was dismembering a monstrous trunk into workable pieces, (well, steamer-trunk-sized pieces), and heaving them onto a deafening chipper in the parking lot of the doomed Wollman Rink. The work looks incredibly difficult and dangerous, as it undoubtedly is. When one guy made a move another didn't like, he hollered at him so loud that you could hear his diatribe over the roar of the truck and two buzz saws. Operating this thing would make me a little tense, too.








The finished mulch was piled in conical mini-mountains in the Concert Grove, awaiting application on paths and plantings throughout the park. It was some consolation to think that the mighty tree would be furnishing the soil it grew from.