
New York City Battles on Against Dutch Elm Disease - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/new-york-city-battles-on-against-dutch-elm-disease
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lafay
This was news to me that there was any battle to be had here.

I grew up in a part of suburban Chicago where all the residential streets were
lined with elms -- it looked very much like the photo of Central Park in the
article. I can remember the little papery elm seeds littered everywhere. Over
the course of my childhood in the 1980s they all got Dutch elm disease and
every last one was removed. The village arborist would come by and spray paint
a big green dot on the trunk -- a mark of death -- and a week later it'd be
gone.

By the time I was in high school, it looked very bare. Most of the elms were
replaced with maples, which are only now starting to look reasonably
substantial.

~~~
jobu
Many cities replaced those dead elms with ash trees lining the streets, and
now they're facing a similar plight with the emerald ash borer.

~~~
clock_tower
What were their reasons for planting another monoculture, after the last one
ended so badly? It seems obvious to me that an urban mixed forest would be
more resilient against disease -- so I'm guessing that urban planners had some
reason I'm not thinking of...

~~~
UnquietTinkerer
Dutch elm disease (and emerald ash borer) wiped out natural tree populations
in forests just as thoroughly as those planted in the city. While monocultures
are not helping, that is a footnote to the real problem here: these diseases
are invasive and native tree species have no resistance to them.

~~~
maxerickson
There is still elm growing wild. They are spaced out enough that transmission
doesn't happen fast.

The geographic spread of the ash borer is less complete than Dutch elm
disease, so it's less clear what will happen over the long term. Maybe pockets
of saplings will outlast the insects.

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andrewgleave
I built the Open Elm Project [1] back in 2011 to help mitigate the risk caused
by lack of funding for professional surveys where I live.

Consists of a Django service with CouchDB as the data store and a couple of
web-based iOS and Android apps.

Woefully neglected now since it was not really used. Uptake of mobile apps for
this type of thing is difficult – especially in a population of 80k back in
2011/2012.

It looks like iriscouch.com is no longer live, as the data isn't loading on
the map. Good thing I had it replicating to another server. :)

Source:
[https://github.com/andrewgleave/OpenElm](https://github.com/andrewgleave/OpenElm)

[1] [http://www.openelm.org.im](http://www.openelm.org.im)

~~~
maxerickson
It'd only be vaguely silly to use OpenStreetMap as your data store.

[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural%3Dtree](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural%3Dtree)

~~~
andrewgleave
Interesting idea. If I reinvigorated the project I would probably have it
augment some existing data set rather than create another independent one.

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dfc
Pedantry: The Nautilus article claims that the disease entered the US via a
shipment of furniture. This is incorrect. Dutch elm disease came to the US in
unprocessed logs. You only need to read the NYT article that is cited:

 _" The fungus that causes the disease -- Ophiostoma ulmi -- accidentally
entered the United States in 1931 on elm logs shipped from France and headed
for Cleveland."_

These unprocessed logs were destined to be turned into veneer for furniture
and cabinetry.

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jasonsync
In speaking with a Dendrologist, today I learned that the primary factor here
is the close proximity of "planted" elm trees.

Elm bark beetles don't travel far on their own, so in a typical forest
environment, elm groves are protected, or buffered, by a variety of
surrounding tree types, the distance between groves, and the natural order of
things.

Whereas, in (sub)urban areas, elm trees are planted up and down residential
streets, in close proximity, with no buffers in between.

There's no winning this one.

~~~
brianwawok
Every 100 feet replace a 50 foot buffer of something else to provide disease
firebreaks?

Do you know why were so many elms were planted? Elms look nice, but so do
other trees. Diversity is nice...

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DanielBMarkham
Related: the American Chestnut has also had a very hard battle. It's almost
completely gone, but scientists struggle on.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight)

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swingbridge
Mature American Elms are beautiful trees, especially over walkways like in
Central Park. Hope they can sort this out.

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grosbisou
Stupid question: could eradicating a disease like this one cause unpredicted
side effects? Like driving some beetles to extinction causing other side
effect? Or is it known that these diseases are purely nefast?

ps: anyone is subscribed to Nautilus? Their free articles are great. I wonder
if the magazine as a whole is worth it.

~~~
maxerickson
The beetles are not native to the US, so any side effect of eradication here
would be back towards the way things would be without ocean shipping.

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dhd415
It's sad to see the demise of grand old elm trees due to Dutch Elm disease as
those trees take decades to reach maturity, can't be easily replaced, and
their replacements are generally also susceptible to the disease. Oak wilt
disease is having a similar effect on oak trees across the southeast US.

