By Sarah Tobol
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BOTANIC GARDEN — What do you do when a 200 ton Ginkgo Biloba is in the way? Move it, according to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Director of Communications Leann Lavin said they are taking “every precaution� to protect and preserve this tree, which is the largest Ginkgo at the garden. It is being moved because they are building a new and better visitor center, located at the entrance to the garden off the parking lot to the Brooklyn Museum.

The new center will include a retail store accessible from Eastern Parkway and will replace the existing one, which Lavin said is very small and in a difficult location, because visitors to the garden have to walk into the garden to find it. It will be a “welcoming place,� she said.

The process to start moving the tree began in the spring, when the garden hired Perfection Tree Experts to make the move. During that time, the company scored a big circle around the tree to prepare its roots.

Vice President of Horticulture and Science Research at the garden Patrick Cullina explained that a “prune line� was made in a circle around the tree. John Locke, of Perfection Tree Experts, cut the circle on the ground to approximately match up with the tree’s branches.

Cullina said that the reason the roots are pruned is to stimulate their growth, or help them “beef up.� Deciding which roots to cut is a strategic process. “We preserve the roots that will best feed the tree,� said Cullina. “You don’t need all the roots.� They chose instead “the greatest concentration of roots that would sustain� the tree as it is.

After the pruning was completed in the spring, the tree was given time for its roots to strengthen, and on Monday, Locke started digging around the tree and preparing it for the move, which they are hoping will be complete by the end of this week.

The area that was scored for pruning is dug out of the ground, and burlap is wrapped around the base, secured by metal wires. Once this is done, the tree looks similar to what you get when you buy a tree or a bush, only bigger, said Cullina.

After digging around the tree and preparing a new spot for it, similar to the spot it was moved from, Locke and his company drilled poles into the bottom of the root bundle. These poles are used to slide the tree to its new spot, like a sled, said Cullina.

Although this whole process may seem like it would be dangerous for the tree, everything is done very carefully. “It’s like a mathematical ratio,� Cullina said. Lavin likened it to brain surgery.

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