[getsmart-l] FW: Renewing Elms (in memory of Henry Kock) and American Chestnut Recovery Program

[Janet May]

Forwarding a message from John O'Gorman 

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: John <mailto:jcogorman at sympatico.ca>  O'Gorman 

To: getsmart-l at list.web.net 

Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 10:52 AM

Subject: Renewing Elms (in memory of Henry Kock) and American Chestnut
Recovery Program

 

NATURE : BREEDING A FUNGUS-FREE GROVE 

A dating service for lonely elms

 

BY SHARON OOSTHOEK GUELPH, ONT. Globe and Mail Dec. 8/07

http://www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum/SpProjects/Elm_Recover1.htm 

If you know of large elms in your area or if you wish to support this unique
project, please click here to print the Elm Recovery
<http://www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum/SpProjects/elmreport.pdf>  Reporting Form
. 

 

Come winter. most tree huggers wax poetic about towering pines or stands of
silvery birch. But Alan Watson is awed at the sight of a small patch of
saplings. He hopes they will grow into an umbrella-shaped canopy - and
revive a stately species that has nearly been wiped out. 

 

The trees are elms, once found across the continent but devastated by a
fungus that has killed millions of trees in Canada and the United States.
Dutch elm disease, like some arboreal version of AIDS, may have been North
America's greatest forest scourge until the recent attack of the mountain
pine beetle. 

 

It reached Eastern Canada during the last world war, hitting Ontario
especially hard. But about nine years ago, researchers at the University of
Guelph's arboretum noticed that a smattering of mature white or American
elms, some of them hundreds of years old, had survived across the province. 

 

Somehow they had resisted the fungus. However, what they can't do, being so
isolated from each other, is reproduce and pass on their hardy genes. That's
why Prof. Watson, director of the arboretum, has mounted a public campaign
he calls his elm "dating service." 

 

His goal was to locate the mature elms and help the best candidates mingle
and mate. So far, Prof. Watson has received 1,800 reports. And now he and
Guelph horticulturalist Sean Fox are taking cuttings from the most eligible
singles and creating clones. 

 

DUTCH IN NAME ONLY 

If all goes well, the clones will be able to resist a fungus that would
otherwise choke their vascular tissues and shut down the circulation of
water and nutrients. 

 

It was first identified in Belgium in 1918 (it got its name because it was
isolated by a Dutch pathologist) and reached North America in logs imported
from Eastern Europe. It was then spread by elm beetles. Trees in the Ohio
Valley were the first to succumb, in the 1930S, but over the next few
decades the beetles carried the fungus north and by the 1960s the disease
had cut a swath through both forests and cities, where elms were often
planted in tight rows because they could tolerate harsh street conditions. 

 

The survivors were trees that were able to seal off infected branches.
According to Prof. Watson, an environmental biologist, such trees appear to
have just the right mix of genes to fight off the fungus. He and his
colleagues have cloned them by taking hundreds of cuttings and grafting them
on to hardy root stock. 

 

Then the clones are incubated and encouraged to grow for about three years -
at which point they are turned over to University of Toronto forestry
scientist Martin Hubbes, who repeatedly injects them with Dutch elm disease
to make sure they are resistant. 

 

"They're really getting their butts kicked," Mr. Fox says. "They recover and
then we give them another strong dose. It's like giving them SARS after
getting over the flu." 

 

While he and Prof. Watson have lost some of the clones to such injections,
most have survived and roughly 30 are now planted in the University of
Guelph's seed orchard. 

 

Other recently acquired clones, in some cases created from 250-year-old
"super elms" nearing the end of their lifespan, are also expected to join
them after a round of inoculation. 

 

Once all these clones are old enough to produce flowers - in about 10 years
- they will be crossbred to create seedlings and immunized again. The 

 

aim is to make truly resistant seeds and seedlings available to the public
within 20 years. 

 

"Seeing the way things are developing here, it's more than a glimmer of
hope," Prof. Watson says. "I think this project has a good chance." 

 

Still, some researchers are taking a different approach. The Elm Research
Institute in New Hampshire, for example, has produced six resistant clones
called Liberty elms each cultivar genetically pure instead of crossbred for
diversity. So far, they have sent out 250,000 trees to individuals and
community groups across North America. 

 

But critics say such clones may not have the genetic depth to resist new
scourges. And, indeed, Dutch elm disease has been reported in some Liberty
elms. "We're trying to follow nature's rules," Mr. Fox says. "And nature's
rule is biodiversity. We're getting a lot of good genes together." 

 

Dale Simpson also prefers the Guelph method. He believes that new
combinations of genes may create a generation of elms more resistant to
illness "than either parent" and he is overseeing a small experimental
nursery of the clones for the Canadian Forest Service just outside
Fredericton. 

 

GENETIC DIVERSITY A PLUS 

Joanna Freeland, a molecular ecologist at Trent University, adds that the
Guelph system also may provide greater insurance against the effects of
climate change. "If you've got lots of genetic diversity, there's a greater
likelihood one or more individuals will have the right combination of genes
to adapt." 

 

Of course, even if Guelph's dating and mating project succeeds, it will be
decades before its orchard produces the impressive elms of yesteryear. But
neither of the scientists behind the project seems fazed that he may not
live to see the fruits of their labour. 

 

Mr. Fox quotes an ancient Greek proverb: "A society grows great when old men
plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." )) Sharon
Oosthoek is a science writer in Toronto. 

 

Circling the wagons 

Alberta and British Columbia are among the few areas in the world still free
of Dutch elm disease. To stay that way, residents of wild rose country are
asked to: 

 

- Report infected trees quickly, and burn, bury or chip elm wood immediately
(chips no bigger than 2.5 centimetres). 

 

- Keep elms well watered and prune deadwood between Oct. 1 and March 31, not
in summer, when elm bark beetles are active. 

 

- Avoid bringing elm firewood or logs into Alberta as they may carry the
beetles and the fungus. 

 

- Do not store elm wood, which would provide beetles with a breeding area. 

 

II Source: Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Food 

****************************************************************************
********************

http://www.grandriver.ca/index/document.cfm?Sec=48
<http://www.grandriver.ca/index/document.cfm?Sec=48&Sub1=2> &Sub1=2


Recovery Program



Nursery Manager Bruce Graham (left) and volunteer Elton Papple examine a
chestnut tree.

Some of the activities at the Burford Nursery were undertaken as part of a
Chestnut Recovery Program led by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement
Association.

Assistance was also provided by a number of other farm organizations,
environmental wildlife groups, government and agencies, most notably the
GRCA.

Partial financial support for the project was supplied by Agriculture and
Agri-Food Canada's Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Fund (CARD),
through the National Soil and Water Conservation Program administered by the
Agricultural Adaptation Council and the Ontario Farm Environmental
Coalition. Additional funding has been provided by Natural Resources Canada,
Canadian Forest Service, Wildlife Habitat Canada and the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources. 

Financial support was also provided by the
<http://www.grandriver.ca/index/document.cfm?Sec=34&Sub1=0&sub2=0> Grand
River Conservation Foundation.

The Canadian Chestnut Council and the Norfolk Field Naturalists have
invested considerable time and resources to collect and distribute
scientific information on the American chestnut.

Information on the current National Chestnut Recovery Program is available
from the  <http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/> Canadian Chestnut Council.


Links


*	 <http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/> Canadian Chestnut Council  
*	 <http://www.acf.org/> American Chestnut Foundation 

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