The Georgetown Metropolitan

Earlier this month, GM noticed that one of the grand American elms on Q St. was dead. Shortly afterwards, the city came and cut the tree down, hopefully preventing any cross-infection with its neighbors.

GM was curious, so he swung by and counted the tree rings. He’s no expert, but it appeared that there were at least fifty rings. A poke around the Internet suggests that an American elm of that size could indeed by only that old.

American elms were incredibly popular street trees before the dreaded Dutch elm disease started to spread after arriving on these shores in the 1930s. They were chosen both because of the amazing arching canopy mature elms create, but also their rapid growth.

It’s that second trait that gives hope. Over the years, several cultivars of American elms have been identified that are resistant to Dutch elm disease. Arborists have enough faith in the new variants that they are aggressively planting new generations of American elms to replace those that are still dying off. Continue reading →