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The City of Weyburn Parks Department have been doing their due diligence in surveying for Dutch Elm Disease within the city. Parks Manager Curtis Block says so far, ten trees have been identified with the disease.
“Since 2017, including both city and private, 120 elm trees have been removed due to Dutch Elm disease within the city. Within the city's inventory, there are approximately 930 American elms, so this represents about 12 percent of our total city inventory and there's an unknown amount of privately owned trees.”
The fungal disease clogs the vascular tissue of an elm tree and is spread from tree to tree primarily by the native elm bark beetle. Block explains that there is no cure, and every infected tree must be removed.
“The only course of action is complete removal and disposal, which is why the disease is so devastating.”
“As part of managing the urban forestry, it's important to plant new trees to replace the ones we have lost, but it's also important that we have diversity of the species of the trees that we're planting.”
By planting trees with a measure of diversity, it protects against potential diseases similar to Dutch Elm Disease. Block explains that if such a disease was found along one street and spread, only a few trees would be lost as opposed to all of them in one area.
“You get a pest or disease that comes through, it could potentially wipe out the entire tree population on one street. Where if you have something diverse, other species of trees, if something comes through, you're only going to lose some, not all of your trees.”
Block emphasizes that Weyburn is not alone in dealing with the spread of Dutch Elm Disease, as it has spread across the southeast part of the province.
“It has spread all over southeastern Saskatchewan. The City of Weyburn is not alone, it's in other communities, other R.M.s. So it's kind of a bit everywhere. So we start planting now for the future as we're losing our elms.”
He reminds the community of the pruning ban in effect for elm trees, running from April 1st to August 31st. Elm wood should also not be stored or transported. This prevents the spread of the disease as the elm bark beetle is attracted to fresh cuts.