5 questions about the effort to save American elms

1. What is happening to save American elms? Scientists with the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy Vermont spent the summer injecting 6,000 young elm trees with Dutch elm disease spores to test their resistance to the disease. The survivors will join a breeding program aimed at growing the genetic diversity of disease-tolerant elm trees for future restoration in forests, riverbanks and backyards. 2. Why does this matter? American elms play a major role in the hydrology of surrounding ecosystems, tolerating flooding and acting like a sponge after rainfall to help prevent catastrophic flooding in river systems. This makes their restoration especially important amid climate change, when unpredictable weather brings more frequent flooding and drought. 3. Who is involved in this effort? Key figures include Leila Wilson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service leading the elm breeding effort; Kathleen Knight, a Forest Service research ecologist based in Ohio; Gus Goodwin, a senior conservation planner for The Nature Conservancy; and Joseph Ferris, an arborist in Montpelier, Vermont. The young elms being tested were bred from a small group of trees in the Northeast that have already survived Dutch elm disease. 4. What happens next? The disease-resistant elms will be placed in a seed orchard, a large fenced area where they will grow for about 15 years until they produce seeds. Those seeds can then be used to restore elm populations in forests, along riverbanks, and in urban plantings. 5. Why is this newsworthy now? Dutch elm disease, a fungus spread by bark beetles that arrived in the U.S. nearly a century ago, has killed tens of millions of elms and made towering elms over 70 feet rare in New England today. The effort is part of a broader national fight against forest pests and diseases, echoed by a separate program in which the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has injected about 1,400 ash trees with insecticide since 2016 to combat the emerald ash borer. For more on this report, read “The disease that decimated American elms could help bring them back” from The Associated Press, published on The Washington Times. This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times' AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times' original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.