Saskatchewan cuts Dutch Elm Disease control program

The Saskatchewan government has decided to cut its 20 year old, Dutch Elm Disease control program.

The cut will save the province $500,000 a year.

Dutch elm disease is a fungus spread by elm bark beetles, which kills trees. Once the disease takes root, there is nothing to do but remove the sick trees immediately before it has a chance to spread.

The city of Regina, home to 60,000 elm trees, uses the $22,000 they receive from provincial funding each year to conduct their Dutch Elm Disease program - including monitoring, surveillance, and pruning - on the 40,000 elm trees on city property. Fortunately the city's manager of forestry, pest control and horticulture, Ray Morgan, said the loss of funding can easily be absorbed into the city's budget.

However, Dutch Elm Disease has been found in at least 25 communities in Saskatchewan, and smaller communities will lose the disease monitoring program the province had been providing.

The monitoring and spraying program within Regina has worked very well, resulting in just two diseased trees requiring removal last year.

Two provinces are known to be free of Dutch Elm Disease: Alberta and British Columbia.

Source:

Concerns raised over cut of Saskatchewan's Dutch elm disease program (Ottawa Citizen)