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Couple owns New Ulm’s biggest walnut tree

NEW ULM – A winner for the eighth annual New Ulm Big Tree Contest has been announced. Jerry Baltrusaitis has won the contest with a walnut tree that measured 103 inches in circumference.

This years contest, sponsored by the New Ulm Tree Advisory Commission, was seeking the largest black walnut tree in the city limits. The winner will be reimbursed up to $200 to plant a tree anywhere in the city limits.

“Many times we thought about cutting it down because it is so close to the house, but in summer time it shades my whole back yard,” Baltrusaitis said. “So even though it makes a big mess back here we like it and you would never grow a tree in a lifetime like this. I got a little soft spot in my heart for that tree.”

Baltrusaitis expects to use his winnings to plant a maple tree because they give good shade and grow fast.

He is considering planting a tree in his front yard, or donating the credit to District 88 schools.

Baltrusaitis would donate the tree in honor of his mother, Doris Baltrusaitis, who passed away recently at the age of 89. She was a school teacher at the public schools and at one point won a teacher of the year award.

Baltrusaitis suspects the winning tree is older than his house, which was built in 1910, due to it being so close to the building.

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