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Dutch Elm Disease Awareness Week | |
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From the June 22, 2009 Issue of Agri-News | |
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| | Dutch Elm Disease (DED) Awareness Week is recognized annually throughout Alberta. The intent is to raise awareness on what DED is, the importance of elm trees to our communities, and that DED can be prevented. This year, DED Awareness Week is June 22 to 28.
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An elm inventory taken in 1999 showed that there are a total of 219,334 elms growing in Alberta’s urban communities. The value of these elm trees is $634 million. It is estimated that equal amounts of elms grow in the rural areas, raising the total value to well over a billion dollars. At present, Alberta has the largest DED-free American elm stands in the world, and this valuable resource is worth protecting.
DED is caused by a fungus that clogs an elm tree’s water conducting system, causing the tree to die. The fungus is primarily spread from one elm tree to another by two species of beetles: the smaller European and the native elm bark beetle. The beetles are attracted to weak and dying trees that serve as breeding sites for the beetles. Once the beetles have pupated and turned into adults, they leave the brood gallery and fly to healthy elms to feed, transporting the fungus on their bodies from one tree to the next.
Monitoring for these beetles, done annually throughout the province, is one way of protecting Alberta’s elm tree population.
Also, the elm tree pruning ban in Alberta is now in effect. To reduce the risk of DED, pruning of elm trees is prohibited throughout Alberta from April 1 to September 30 each year. Fresh cuts from pruning attract the beetles that can spread the disease and increase the chance of an infection. This ban period is intended to coincide with the period during which elm bark beetles are most active. Pruning of dead and dying elm branches is encouraged from October 1 to March 31. This helps to reduce beetle breeding habitat. Prompt and proper disposal of the pruned elm wood is essential to keep the vectors and disease from spreading.
Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s website has additional information on DED and on the pruning precautions and pruning bans in place to help prevent the spread of DED to Alberta’s elms. For more information on DED and on this year’s DED Awareness Week, visit the website at www.agriculture.alberta.ca/ded |
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For more information about the content of this document, contact Lee Anne Bateman.
This document is maintained by Rita Splawinski.
This information published to the web on June 17, 2009.
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