In October, thanks to a generous gift from garden patron Anthony Ka Long Yu, outside contractors skillfully and carefully removed several dead California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) and the overgrown cottonwood (Populus) fromt the MEMBG grounds. It took the garden staff many months to identify a company that was willing to guarantee precision removal while safeguarding surrounding plants. Our deepest thanks, once again, to Mr. Yu for generously funding this project, which could never have been accomplished safely by our staff.