Can an Elm survive Dutch Elm disease?

[AnnieDee]

Hi there, 

I have a large Elm tree in my garden and had a council worker come round to tell me it had Dutch Elm disease and that it would be dead within 6 weeks. That was mid August 2023. It did not die and after winter it now looks very much like a beautiful healthy tree.

I understand that the disease spreads when the beetles move in and start to eat the dying/dead bark however there is no sign of beetle. I am not questioning whether the diagnosis is correct as I believe that it is, however I'm being pushed into chopping it down now, when it does not yet seem to be a threat to other trees.

I appreciate that the idea is to get rid of it before it becomes a risk however the immediate local area has many trees marked up as having the disease (a spray painted orange X) and they have not yet been dealt with. As in, council owned land and the park immediately outside my house has infected trees that the council has left and not got round to yet for a couple of years (probably responsible for the infection of my own tree!)

It's a sad situation but I'd just like some advice on whether I should wait and see a bit longer (maybe my Elm will fight it off and be a survivor?)... It has already massively defied the expert's prediction that it would be dead within 6 weeks. Or if I should get on with chopping it down and get the council off my back, even though it feels like I'd be killing a beautiful and pretty healthy looking tree. 

For additional confusion, the council have said that they will chop it down at their own cost- but I have a week to confirm.

If I'm enforced to do it in the future then I'd be paying for the chop myself which would be pretty difficult financially.

Any thoughts would be welcome, I'm so sad about losing this tree but am in no way an arborist so don't know if I should be fighting for it's rights or letting it go  

[organic guy]

5 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

 

I wasn't aware this was the policy in Brighton and Edinburgh, that's interesting.  I hope it works and isn't a fruitless fight - most tree diseases seem to march across the country eventually - Phytophthora ramorum, ash dieback, grey squirrels.  Are there any examples of this policy working?

Yes, Brighton, the fact that there are elm trees still alive.

Rachael Carson talks about the spread of DED in "Silent Spring" published in the 60s? and the potential to stop or slow it's spread.

[openspaceman]

15 minutes ago, organic guy said:

Rachael Carson talks about the spread of DED in "Silent Spring"

I wasn't aware of that, I did read some of the book, mainly about DDT and dieldrin.

 

I was planning a different career path, so took little notice of trees, but was aware of the disease from seeing the trees dying as I drove west through Wiltshire in 1969, by !972 it was over with virtually all mature elms dead. Later we were still felling them  in 76, I felt very guilty  about felling one that was in rude health, it was isolated and on RAF Kenley. At the time we were told the runway was unused, so guess where we parked the lorry? On the second day and as we arrived to start work a plane landed.