BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[elm]](/editions/1998/10/21/elm_200x124.jpg)
Dick Ammon examines the leaves of an elm tree in his Burlington nursery.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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The American elm, one of America's most popular trees until it was ravaged by disease, is making a comeback in the Tristate.
"Cincinnati has the leading program in the country in terms of bringing back the elm," said Denny Townsend, research geneticist with the U.S. National Arboretum in Glenn Dale, Md.
The latest example is occurring this week in Madeira, where 20 American elms known to resist Dutch elm disease are being planted in parks and on private property.
The fungal disease has killed an estimated 80 million trees in the United States since the 1930s. And while Dr. Townsend has been successful at producing disease-tolerant varieties of the tree, it's up to nurseries to grow them and people to plant them.
That's where Greater Cincinnati has taken a leading role. Urban foresters, garden clubs and concerned individuals are part of the team. But Dr. Townsend credits two people in particular: businessman Bill Monroe of East Walnut Hills and nurseryman Dick Ammon, retired owner of Ammon Landscape in Burlington.
The Ammon nursery supplied the Princeton elms -- one of several varieties of disease-tolerant American elms -- for Madeira. Among other recent plantings:
- Last fall, the Federated Garden Clubs of Cincinnati & Vicinity planted about 80 disease-tolerant elms in public locations around the city to commemorate the group's 75th anniversary.
- Last year, the city of Cincinnati planted six elms in Mount Airy Forest and 20 along Burnet Avenue.
- Two years ago, the city planted about 70 Princeton elms on both sides of Martin Luther King Drive.
The trees are faring well.
The Madeira project began with former Mayor Mel Martin's suggestion to plant disease-tolerant elms. Sarah Anness Evans, a member of the city's recreation and parks board, contacted Dr. Townsend at the National Arboretum, who put her in touch with Mr. Monroe.
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DISASTROUS DISEASE
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It can start with one limb. In summer, the leaves turn yellow, then brown, then they drop. Soon other limbs are affected. The tree may die within weeks of a Dutch elm disease infection, or it might take two years.
The disease probably originated in Asia, but it's called Dutch elm disease because scientists in the Netherlands first isolated the fungus that causes it.
In 1930, elm logs from Europe, destined for Ohio furniture factories, arrived on the East Coast. The logs contained a fungus and elm bark beetles. Fungus-infested beetles spread the disease to healthy trees.
The fungus causes a tree's internal vascular system to clog, preventing water from moving. Efforts to fight the fungus have proved futile. In the United States, the disease has killed about 90 percent of American elms. -
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"He's been a wonderful support, my source of research," Mrs. Evans said of Mr. Monroe.
Indeed, for six years, Mr. Monroe has made it his avocation to collect and disseminate information about disease-tolerant elms.
"Many people consider the elm to be the most beautiful of the very tall trees," which include maples, oaks and sycamores, he said. "And it is probably the best urban tree; it can withstand more adverse conditions."
Initially, Mr. Monroe became interested in the trees after reading a New York Times story; he makes a living introducing new products to market, so he began toying with the idea of selling disease-tolerant elms.
He soon realized only a professional nursery could make a go of it. By then, he'd introduced the Federated Garden Clubs to the notion of planting elms for its 75th anniversary. He asked Mr. Ammon to help.
Mr. Ammon knew the elm, with its arching, shady branches, once had been popular in the Tristate, and he thought it could be again. What's more, he thought the tree would do well in the hard, compact soil that is typical of new housing developments.
Mr. Monroe put Mr. Ammon in touch with Dr. Townsend, who began his work on elms in the 1970s at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research station in Delaware, Ohio.
Since the 1930s, researchers there had been growing thousands of elms and infecting them with the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease. They hoped to find a tree that was resistant. Dr. Townsend eventually did, and he called it Valley Forge.
At the same time, he had been looking for disease-resistant elms wherever he went. He found such a tree along Interstate 70 near Springfield, Ohio. He took cuttings, grew the tree and infected it. Like Valley Forge, it resisted the disease. He called it New Harmony.
Today, Mr. Ammon's nursery is one of five in the United States growing New Harmony and Valley Forge elms. The Burlington nursery also has Princeton elms; that disease-tolerant tree is from Princeton Nurseries in Allentown, N.J., and is not part of Dr. Townsend's research.
Nobody had to convince Jenny Gulick that planting disease-tolerant elms was a good idea. She is natural resources manager for the Cincinnati Parks Board.
"It's a great tree," she said. "Architecturally, with the branches, there's no other tree like it."
The American elm, she said, "is one of the priority species to be planted along the new streets downtown -- Fort Washington Way and Mehring Way."
But finding trees to plant could be a problem.
Princeton Nurseries has cut back on production, Mr. Ammon said. And his New Harmony and Valley Forge saplings won't be ready for sale for three to four years. He has sent some to an Oregon nursery, where they will grow faster.
He's also getting calls from cities around the country that want to buy his elms.
"I want to try to keep them here," he said. "We want to watch them, evaluate them." Plus, "Bill Monroe's idea is to make Cincinnati "Elm City.' "
It's an idea that has taken root.
![[elm]](/editions/1998/10/21/elm_600x372.jpg)