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Tuesday, June 05, 2012


FREDERICTON: THE CITY OF STATELY (WHITE) ELMS
BY HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
EXCERPTS FROM ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON 05 JUNE 2012
Fredericton is working to hold onto its moniker as the City of Stately Elms by continuing the strategic planting of Dutch Elm-disease resistant species of white elm, says Don Murray, the city’s chief forester and manager of parks and trees.
“For years, I have been watching the developments and the breeding and the genetics of white elm, and there’s been numerous attempts to develop a Dutch Elm disease-tolerant white elm and they’ve been in the U.S. for a few years,” Murray said.
Municipalities have been asking Canadian nurseries to bring in the disease-tolerant white elm so they can be returned to public streetscapes and parks.
“About four years ago, they finally could supply what I asked for,” Murray said. “I’ve been asking for about eight years on my tree order for a disease-tolerant white elm, and four years ago they finally could supply it, so we’ve been planting them for about four years now.”
Murray chose Valley Forge white elm because it has a similar structure to the traditional white elms that still line much of the downtown core.
“We’ve been planting them mostly in wards 4, 10 and 11 because traditional and historically that’s where the elms were planted as street trees. Those are the two downtown wards and Devon, and that’s where we’re trying to bring them back into those neighbourhoods to keep that look,” he said.
A couple of white elms will be planted near the new downtown convention centre. The city has purchased 50 white elms for spring planting.
“They’re absolutely fantastic specimens, just lovely trees,” he said.
Murray said even some of the city’s largest and oldest elm trees appear to be developing a tolerance against Dutch Elm disease.
“It’s still present. The disease will always be present, but we still have quite a few elms. Some of the larger elms that we have are showing a tolerance ... so we sort of have our own little gene pool that’s developed and I suspect as years go by, we’ll build up a tolerance within our own native population to Dutch Elm disease,” Murray said.
“Nature has a way of looking after itself. You just have to be patient.”
This spring, the city will plant 460 trees along streets and in public green spaces.
It’s always a monitoring-and-adjusting process for the municipality as it sees how certain tree species take to the Maritime climate and what types of pests they must defend against.
Years ago, a red Norway maple named Crimson King was heavily planted, and not just by the city.
But the tree is such a prolific seeder that it has become invasive in woodlands and parklands where native maple trees grow.
“They’re becoming an invasive pest and growing in areas where people really don’t want them,” Murray said.
Ash, which is a native species, has been under attack by the emerald ash borer, a beetle, so the city is pulling back on planting ash.
“We’re concentrating on oaks,” Murray said. “Red oak is traditional in New Brunswick, but we’ve had very good success with bur oak, which is another native species, and we’ve planted some swamp white oak and shingle oak and pin oak which have done really well.”
Fredericton also brought in five tulip trees to plant.
“We always pick a species or two to try every year,” he said.
The tulip trees are basically a type of poplar, and Murray said he sees potential for them to be decent park trees for the city.
“The leaf is quite unique. It’s basically like a silhouette of a tulip,” he said. “There’s a few of them growing around Fredericton that people brought in a years ago and planted.”
Filberts are being planted, which the grey squirrels will like, and sweet gum is another tree that developers have tried locally and have done well.
“It’s not that great of a cost and the successes that we’ve had have paid off over the years. It looks really nice to mix up our species on our streets,” he said. For flowering species, the city is trying Schubert cherries, flowering crab and serviceberries for colour.

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