Upper Mississippi River NW&FR - Winona District Maintenance Worker Steve Erickson uses a Bobcat to pile branches from the tree cutting. - USFWS photo by Mary Stefanski.

Chainsaw expertise was supplied by the Fire Management Program. Chris Mursu, Sherburne NWR, (left) and Loren Schoewe, Windom WMD, (right) work on one of the oak trees infested with oak wilt disease. - USFWS photo by Mary Stefanski.

A team of tree-cutters from Big Stone NWR (Dan Angelo), Sherburne NWR (Chris Mursu), and the Windom WMD (Loren Schoewe) travelled with chainsaws in hand to the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge to cut more than 100 oak trees infested with oak wilt disease on the Winona District.

The site had been prepared earlier in the year by hiring a vibratory plow operator to cut a trench around the perimeter of the infected trees, severing the roots, thus halting the spread of the disease to the surrounding oak trees.

The chainsaw crew felled the trees and cut them into small enough pieces for a skidsteer with a grapple bucket loaned from Trempealeau NWR to pile the branches for burning later this winter.