Removal of five campus elms scheduled this week

Several rotting or diseased elm trees will be removed this week in the Bascom Hill area of UW–Madison.

Three of the hill’s historic elms will be removed Tuesday and Wednesday, June 26-27, along with two others, one near Chadbourne Hall and the other in Camp Randall Memorial Park. Dutch elm disease or rotting trunks make them safety hazards. The Bascom Hill elms are estimated to be at least 80-100 years old.

“It’s always sad to see one of our majestic elms cut down, but it’s important for the long-term survivability of our remaining elms that we remove the diseased trees from campus,” says Daniel Einstein, the university’s environmental management coordinator.

Two years ago, many stately elms on campus were treated with a fungicide to prevent the onset of Dutch elm disease. That fungicide, which is designed to provide three years of protection, seems to be working, says Einstein.

Einstein says the trees slated for removal were not treated two years ago, because of Dutch elm infection or their poor condition.

“All of the other Bascom Hill elms appear to be free of Dutch elm disease at this time, but campus arborists are always monitoring them for signs of infection,” Einstein says, noting that additional preventative treatments are planned this year.

The fungus is easily transmitted by bark beetles that have fed on an infected tree. It can also move from one tree to the next via root grafts. Einstein says the cool, wet weather this spring has been ideal for the disease’s transmission.

Branches from the diseased elms were analyzed for the presence of the fungus by the Department of Plant Pathology’s Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic, a laboratory jointly sponsored by UW–Madison and UW Extension. Lab testing for a wide variety of plant diseases is available to the public.