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Dying elm trees.


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I have a small bit of wood which is mainly elm with some other stuff. The problem is that the elm are all dying one by one. I guess it's the dreaded Dutch elm disease. As it seems to be spreading, should we fell the lot and try to coppice it? Or should we remove any dying wood as soon as possible? Hopefully there are some photos attached.

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The DED beetle will be there already and IMO there is very little you can do, your Elms will reach a certain size and then succumb to the decease (there may be the odd exception if your lucky)

 

Coppicing any that have not been affected yet may work.

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That's what my thought was. There are a few other broadleaves in there as well which should coppice well. Does elm have any value as timber or is it best as firewood? Most of the trees are fairly straight although not big. Is it safe to sell the timber with the bug or should it all just be logged up and burnt?

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Fell and burn....did we NOT learn anything from the 70s?

 

Did it work?:sneaky2:

 

The ones in the last two pics look very well gone. No bark for galleries/overwintering, and no buds as a food source. Doubtful they'll cause much harm to anything else. Ded is here and doesn't look like it's going away

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Does elm have any value as timber or is it best as firewood? Most of the trees are fairly straight although not big. Is it safe to sell the timber with the bug or should it all just be logged up and burnt?

 

It was much undervalued as a timber, used in waney edge cladding as well as seat bottoms and of course butchers blocks on the end grain. Toward the end it was mostly used as pallet blocks. The last live large elms I felled were at RAF Kenley in 76.

 

I imagine yours are little trees that have just grown large enough for the bark cambium and phloem to provide hosting for the wee beasties and the tree has reacted to the fungus they've introduced and killed itself. I would coppice and avoid transporting the timber if you are far north or near Brighton.

 

AJH

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