One of the Remaining Elm Trees on Decatur Square Needs to Be Taken Down
Decatur Metro | July 1, 2011The city’s Linda Harris forwards this note from Decatur’s Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne…
Folks who arrived early to the Decatur Beach Party [a couple of weeks back] were greeted by the site of a large broken limb hanging from one of the remaining Elm Trees on the south lawn of the Old Courthouse adjacent to the bandstand. The city arborist inspected the tree and determined that it is diseased and needs to be removed. We wanted residents to understand why it was being cut down. Many of the Elms that once surrounded the old courthouse succumbed to Dutch Elm disease decades ago and we have been struggling to save the few that remain. This tree has been declining for years. As much as we hate to cut down a large tree, we were already planning to add trees around the south lawn area next fall to assure large growth trees for future generations.
An article in the July/August issue of the Decatur Focus will provide more information on this plan.
These elms have close ties to the preservation of the Old DeKalb Courthouse, as the area garden clubs who came together to save the elms from removal in the 1950s regrouped in the 1960s to prevent the demolition of the Courthouse.
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Too bad. It’s like the departure of the Old Guard.
(uh oh. I sold a bunch of book festival booths with the promise of shade. Hope this falls under force majeure.)
Thanks for letting us know.
Does anyone know whether elm trees could ever come back through saved seeds, cells, DNA, etc.? It would seem that current science could do something like that. Is the problem that Dutch elm disease is still around? Can’t science do anything about that?
Dutch elm disease is definitely still around. it’s a fungus that attacks and clogs the vascular system. Elm beetles carry it back and forth, and trees growing close together can pass it back and forth via their roots becoming entangled. There are injections, but they are expensive and have to be repeated at intervals, while other vectors are controlled at the same time. Some varieties of elm are more resistant than others, but being too selective about planting undermines diversity in teh natural stock.
You may be thinking of chestnut blight. I think they’ve been working to develop resistant hybrids, and so bring back the American chestnut. (I’m no arborist, just a compulsive googler with the uncontrolled and undirected ability to remember random bits while forgetting why I drove to the store.)
Barbara Kingsolver has a wonderful novel that weaves in a story about chestnut blight and efforts to bring back the American chestnut. It’s called Prodigal Summer. One of my favorites! Also a story line about coyotes, too.
Can any part of it be incorporated into one of Alma’s benches?
Good idea!
So sad