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Tosa's biggest tree is being cut down this week, and neighbors are saying goodbye

A city arborist told the Noltes that this American elm is the largest on record in Wauwatosa. Their block is "going to look completely different," Jodi Nolte said, when the city finishes removing it due to threat of "catastrophic damage."

By David Paulsen
Tosa's biggest tree is being cut down this week, and neighbors are saying goodbye
The giant American elm in the 2500 block of North 64 Street has become like part of the family for the Noltes, who live in the house next to it.
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This is a story about a tree.

There are many trees in Wauwatosa, but the city has no record of any bigger than the giant American elm on North 64th Street just south of Center Street Park. It is a tree so wide that the sidewalk was rerouted to accommodate its growth.

The tree is beloved by many who pass by it on walks through the Tosa East Towne neighborhood. Few have grown as attached to it as the Nolte family. The tree was already big in 1998 when the Noltes first moved into the house underneath its expansive canopy, and it has only grown bigger since then — 23 feet around, according to the Noltes' tape measure.

And now, the Noltes are saying goodbye.

The Noltes are staying on the block, but the tree is coming down. The City of Wauwatosa's Forestry Department, which prunes and maintains more than 25,000 publicly owned trees, left a notice on the Noltes' door earlier this year informing them that weaknesses in the tree's great branches had the potential to cause "catastrophic damage" to anything below.

And so, this week, city crews have closed the street, staged their equipment in the roadway beside that elm and begun trimming back its upper branches. The largest parts of the tree are expected to be removed April 22. By the end of the week, only a stump will remain.