Elm trees in Charlottetown inoculated against disease

A new technique is being used by Charlottetown to help protect the city's remaining American elms. 

The trees are being inoculated against Dutch Elm disease. 

"This inoculation is just a little bit of a boost for the tree," says Beth Hoar, the city's parkland conservationist.

"It's not a guarantee, but I find it very exciting that we're really have a chance to see if we can save some of those magnificent trees that we have in the city."    

The roots of the American elm are exposed, holes are drilled and tubes are inserted into the base of the tree. Water is mixed with the inoculate and then flushed through the whole tree. Before only small amounts of inoculate were injected into the tree. 

The roots are covered after the process is complete. 

"When you use a larger volume of water and the tree takes that up, we're more confident that it's going to get to all parts of that canopy," said Hoar. 

The city had to cut down 300 American elms infected with Dutch elm disease. 

Steps are now being taken to protect the remaining few hundred trees from the disease. 

"Dutch elm disease is a fungus that's passed along by the elm bark beetle and the product that we're pumping in to the tree is a fungicide so it'll prevent the tree from contracting the fungus hopefully," said forest technician Jason MacEachern. 

"The inoculate that the city used to use was a micro inoculation, which meant a small volume of inoculate and this is a macro infusion which means it's a large amount inoculate so there's a greater chance for it to spread throughout the tree and be more effective."   

The idea to use this method of inoculation came from other cites that are fighting to save trees from Dutch elm disease. 

"It's a big problem in a lot of municipalities so we're really trying to deal with that fairly aggressively to see if we can get the level of disease in the city down," said Hoar.     

Staff are inoculating healthy trees to protect them before they are infected. The trees have to be flushed once every three years. 

Seven American elms on city property are being inoculated this year and the city plans to do more each year.