JACKSON -- A procedure called "topping" or "de-horning" was used to prune a pin oak tree in front of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce a few years ago. Joe Sherinski, a landscaper who is the chairman of the chamber's Beautification Committee, has another name for the practice he claims is curious to Southeast Missouri.

"It's more like an amputation," he says, and the patient didn't make it.

Sherinski says the tree is basically dead, but the chamber plans to transform it into art that promotes a source of great civic pride -- the Jackson High School Indians.

Cape Girardeau artist August Birk has agreed to sculpt the trunk of the tree in the image of an 11-foot-tall Indian.

No one is sure if City Administrator Steve Wilson was being facetious when he proposed the idea, but it seemed to make sense. "It was a way we could do something with this piece of dead lumber on our corner," says Ken Parrett, executive director of the chamber.

Members of the committee have looked approvingly at Indian sculptures Birk has completed. His chain-saw sculptures can be seen in many yards around Cape Girardeau. Another stands before the newly renovated Sikeston Depot, due to open in March.

Sherinski is a member of a state forestry advisory council that is beginning a campaign to educate consumers about the practice of topping trees. In most cases, new growth comes in after a tree is topped but it is only weakly attached to the limbs, Sherinsky says. The tops have to be kept cut back, the stub allows bacteria and fungi into the heartwood of the tree and the tree becomes susceptible to being blown over in a high wind.

A number of civic groups are about to begin raising funds. Birk is not expected to be able to begin work on the project for at least 90 days. The cost of cutting the 50-foot tree down and sculpting it is estimated at $3,000-$3,500.

Parrett hopes to have the sculpture completed by football season. It has occurred to him that the transformed tree may be in some jeopardy again the week before the football game between archrivals Jackson and Cape Central. "They'll probably teepee the heck out of it," he said.

"We'll probably have to cover it or put up a force field."