Tom Palmer, with Wood Chuck Tree Service, and Tina Sebestyen, founder of the Four Corners Bee Keepers Club, strap down a portion of a cottonwood tree trunk filled with thousands of dormant bees on Thursday. The tree trunk will be hauled to Sebestyen’s land near Family Craft Memorials, and then during the spring when the bees awake, she will decide what to do with the hive. The city of Durango cut down three cottonwood trees that are estimated to be more than a hundred years old on East Fifth Avenue that had become unsafe with portions of the trees dead and hollow inside. The city removed four cottonwood trees on East Seventh Avenue for the same reason. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

Wood Chuck Tree Service, a contractor for the city of Durango, cuts down three cottonwood trees that are estimated to be more than a hundred years old along East Fifth Avenue on Thursday. The trees had become unsafe with portions of the trees dead and hollow inside. The city also removed four cottonwood trees on East Seventh Avenue for the same reason. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

Dan Bowman, owner of Wood Chuck Tree Service, a contractor for the city of Durango, cuts down one of three cottonwood trees that are estimated to be over a hundred years old on East Fifth Avenue on Thursday that had become unsafe. The city removed four cottonwood trees on East Seventh Avenue for the same reason. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)