Fight against Dutch elm disease continues in Charlottetown

Over the next three weeks, close to 100 elm trees will be cut down as the City of Charlottetown continues its fight against Dutch elm disease.

In total, 96 trees on both public and private property will be cut down as part of the Dutch elm disease management program says Beth Hoar, parkland conservationist with the city.

It is the second year of the management program and $95,000 will be spent cutting down and removing the trees. In the first year, 350 trees were cut down.

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"We have a tech on that goes out and he monitors all of the elm trees. So we look at every single elm in the city and we assess it for symptoms of Dutch elm disease. If they have the symptoms, then they go on the list for removal," said Hoar.

The disease is often spread by elm bark beetles and work to remove the trees has to be done in the early spring and fall when they are hibernating.

"We had a really high infestation of Dutch elm disease in the city so I'm hoping as we move through and into future years we'll see a lower rate of infection. We did have a high population so we're not quite seeing that reduction in numbers that I had hoped but I'm hoping in the future we will."

Once the trees are cut down, the wood is buried to protect against any chance of the infection spreading.

The work to remove the trees is expected to be completed by December.

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