American Elm Restoration
The American elm was once the street tree of choice for many of America's main streets. This beautiful native tree is hearty and adaptable to a wide range of conditions found in cities. The most visible and well-known American elms in the District are growing on the National Mall between the US Capitol and the Washington Monument. Dutch elm disease (DED) devastated many stands of historic elms across the country and here in DC. As many as 100 million elms have succumbed to the disease in the United States since its introduction from Europe about 75 years ago. Still, there are thousands of beautiful elms in DC and Casey Trees is leading an effort to restore the American elm here. The street tree inventory conducted by Casey Trees in 2002 identified 8,588 American elms. Today we estimate that American elms comprise approximately 6% of the street trees, or between 6,000-7,000 trees. DED is still an ever-present risk, with an infection rate of 4%-6%, affecting over 200 trees every year. Since 2003, Casey Trees has been working to restore the American elm by replanting disease-tolerant cultivars in historic streetscapes across the District. Each year we coordinate with the arborists of the Urban Forestry Administration and Citizen Foresters to identify appropriate locations to fill with new plantings. |
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