City removing 60 diseased elm trees

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This article was published 03/01/2020 (2130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The fight against Dutch elm disease in Brandon is ongoing as the city is set to cut down approximately 60 trees with the disease this winter.

It’s a number City of Brandon director of community services Perry Roque said is about average and part of the city’s efforts to reduce the spread of the tree-killing disease.

“Dutch elm disease is an ongoing issue throughout the city of Brandon. We have trees that are marked by the province with Dutch elm disease and then we go out and remove them — both city trees and private trees,” Roque said.

In a tender closing today, it asks for bidders to “completely” remove infected trees and for the stumps to be cut flush to the ground. All logs and branches are then supposed to be buried in the landfill. The tender document says the work must be completed by March 27, 2020.

Dutch elm disease is a major concern for the city and its urban tree canopy, Roque said. The city also sprays insecticide to slow the spread of the disease.

“If we don’t do this maintenance program, then it will just continue to get worse. This is one of the ways we have to control the spread of Dutch elm disease,” he said.

All trees on the tender list are on private property, Roque said. Most are in back yards and many properties have more than one diseased tree on them.

The province mandates infected trees can be cut down between September and March of each year, he said. The cold weather means the beetle that carries the disease isn’t moving around.

Provincial crews surveyed Westman for dutch elm disease in 2016. The Brandon Sun reported in July 2016 that the city found 267 disease trees in the city the year before. In addition, in 2016 more than 400 trees were found with the disease in the riverbank’s buffer area.

Dutch elm disease affects elm trees and prevents water from moving around the tree. It is most commonly spread by elm bark beetles, which live beneath the bark of a tree. If the pest lived in a tree killed by the disease, they can spread it to other trees by carrying spores of the fungus that causes the infection.

Dave Barnes, chairman of the Assiniboine Food Forest, said Dutch elm disease is a “real concern” in the Wheat City.

“The fight to keep Dutch elm at bay will be ongoing for as long as we have large elms because the American elm we grow on city streets are more or less susceptible,” he said. “According to their genetics, they can be disease-prone to this fungus.” 

Elm trees are native all over southern Manitoba, Barnes said. While the Assiniboine Food Forest can’t do a great amount to prevent the spread, provincial crews check the trees each year. He said the city can help prevent or slow progression of the disease by planting disease-resistant varieties of elms — also removing the infected trees entirely.

“Simply by doing what we do today, that is by diligently monitoring every year to identify the trees in the urban forest that are demonstrating signs of dutch elm and within the year and taking them out and burning them,” Barnes said.

The city also takes measures to counter the emerald ash borer, which Barnes said is another major threat to city trees. The pest hasn’t been found in Brandon, but it is established in Winnipeg and other areas of the province.

“That’s coming to really threaten ash forests — and guess what? If elm was the No. 1 tree in our forest canopy, ash is No. 2, and they are susceptible to this new pest, which we hope is not going to arrive very soon,” Barnes said.

The City of Brandon placed awareness bands around trees along Rosser Avenue downtown to raise public awareness about the insect last year last summer.

To stop the spread of Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer, people shouldn’t move firewood around the province, Barnes said. They should also burn infected firewood as soon as it is cut.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_