Workers from Ceres Environmental Services, Inc., extracted an 18-inch diameter linden stump from the boulevard on the 3300 block of James Avenue N. Monday morning, the first of about 800 tipped stumps that have remained along streets and in parks since powerful storms blew across the city June 21.

The tipped stumps, about half of which also heaved up sidewalks and curbs, had remained since the storm so that city crews could photograph and record the precise geographic location of each of them, as part of the process for getting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover up to $1.2 million in storm cleanup costs.

In all, about 3,000 trees were destroyed on public property in the storm. Most snapped in ways that didn't pull the roots out of the ground, and were simply cut down and their stumps ground down and removed, said Minneapolis Parks and Recreation forestry director Ralph Sievert. University of Minnesota researchers also documented the tipped trees as part of an effort to determine why some trees felland others, or similar size and type, did not.

It should take about four weeks for crews to remove the tipped stumps, which in many cases have left neighborhood sidewalks looking like skateboard jumps. Workers are filling the holes with fresh dirt, and hauling the stumps to a facility in Brooklyn Park for chipping. Ceres will use the chips.

Removal costs about $270 per stump.

The Minneapolis Public Works Department will follow with repairs to sidewalks and curbs and gutters, aiming to complete that work by November, said street maintenance Superintendent Mike Kennedy.

Picasa, Star Tribune

The park board will plant new trees next spring, if the budget now being drawn up is approved later this year. FEMA reimbursement will not cover the cost of replanting, superintendent Jayne Miller noted. It costs about $138 to buy and plant a new tree.

PHOTO: Mike Beavers of Ceres Environmental Services, Inc., gave the stump and roots of an 18-inch linden a good tug Monday.

MAP: Dark path across south Minneapoilis shows where tree damage was most lintense.