Groton — A crew from Northeast Clearing Inc. were taking down a pair of locust trees Thursday on Ward Avenue in Noank.

The trees, which were being removed to make way for the Mosher Avenue bridge replacement project, are being donated to Mystic Seaport Museum. The black locust will be used by the museum's Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard to make trunnels, or wooden pegs, as fasteners for the restoration of the historic Gloucester fishing schooner L.A. Dunton.

Russ Fowler, superintendent of the Noank Water Co., knew the museum could use the locust and contacted Quentin Snedicker, the Clark senior curator of watercraft and director of the shipyard at the museum, to offer the wood.

"Instead of seeing it chipped up," Fowler explained, "we can help the Seaport out." 

Shipwright Nathan Adams, on scene to take delivery of the locust trunks, estimated the trees could yield as many as 500 trunnels, depending on the condition of the wood.