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Saving the
Cycads
July 19,
1999
Text and photographs by
Linda
Grashoff
Benzing watched Scott perform one of his precision moves, scooping under the root and soil mass with just the right angle to make the tree tip toward the cab of the machine.
But before the front-end
loader could back out with its prize, the tree's leaves had
to be trimmed back just a little more, so the cycad could
fit under the metal heating pipe. Scott steadied Benzing in
the procedure.
After the tree was trimmed
down, Scott tried backing out, but the front wheels dug into
the soil, and the machine wouldn't move. Scott and Zgrabik
had to dig out the wheels with hand shovels.
A few minutes later, Benzing watched his prize tree ride out of the greenhouse in the front end of the Ford 550. But the fun wasn't over yet.
