Thousands of elm saplings to be planted
17 March 2010
School children across the country will be helping find out why some elm trees survived the scourge of Dutch elm disease which wiped out almost the entire population of British elms in the 1960s.
Elm saplings have been propagated from the handful of native British elms that lived through the disease and are still thriving in the countryside, now over 60 years old. The young trees have already been delivered to 250 schools, and more are on their way to community gardens, local authorities and landowners. It's hoped about ten thousand elms will eventually be planted all over Britain in the coming years, repopulating the countryside with one of our best-loved trees.
After planting the trees will be closely monitored over the years, with each tree's progress recorded on the Conservation Foundation's website noting height, girth, and of course flagging up any signs of Dutch elm disease. It's hoped the data will be some indication of whether the parent elms escaped the disease because they were naturally immune, because they recovered or because they were simply growing in a location which was unaffected.
The virulent fungal infection Ophiostoma novo-ulmi, known as Dutch elm disease after the nationality of the scientists who discovered it, spread like wildfire through the British elm population, killing about 25 million trees within a decade and all but removing one of Britain's best-loved trees from the landscape. However, some did survive, and in 2003 the Natural History Museum mapped 207 specimens across the country.
'So many elms have disappeared over recent years that we can only hope to replace some,' said Conservation Foundation co-founder David Shreeve. 'But rather than just give up and forget the elm, we think it's worth a try.'