Starting April 1 pruning elm trees in Saskatchewan will not be allowed (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Dutch Elm Disease

Tree pruning ban coming into force soon

Mar 26, 2019 | 12:36 PM

People with elm trees on their property have a limited time to prune them.

Starting April 1 and running until Aug. 31, a province-wide ban on pruning elm trees will come into force. The ban is intended to slow the spread of Dutch elm disease, which has been present in Saskatchewan since the 1980s.

Colin Arndt a forest insect and disease program specialist with the Ministry of Environment explained the government’s reasons for putting the ban in place.

“We implement the pruning ban every year from those dates just because there is an elm bark beetle that can spread the Dutch elm disease fungus from tree to tree and the summer months is when this beetle is the most active,” he said.

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The disease which afflicts elm trees is historically found in the southern and eastern parts of the province, where there are some clusters of native elm stands. These areas include the Carrot River Valley and Qu’Applle Valley.

“Those places are all really, really bad,” Arndt said.

Despite this history, the disease has been found in the northeast, which has forced one community to take action.

“I believe it was in 2017 when Melfort found their first case in town, and now they’ve implemented a comprehensive survey to their management program,” he said.

Arndt added the disease has become more of problem in the Melfort area overall in recent years after it made its way into the area through the Carrot River Valley.

“Now it’s working its way through shelter belts,” he said.

When it comes to spreading over long distances, this generally happens due to people transporting elm wood.

When looking to identify an elm tree, Arndt said there are a number of ways to identify one.

“They’re those trees that are typically planted along streets, they have that typical umbrella canopy shape, they’re usually a dark green in colour, the leaves,” he said.

The bark of the trees as well tends to be deeply ridged, which means if you break off a piece you will find a layering pattern which tends to be brown and white.

When it comes to identifying if a tree is afflicted with the disease, Arndt said the tree will tend to have dying leaves on it during the summer months.

People who are found to be violating the ban could face some penalties, especially if they are a working as commercial pruner.

“We do have legislation in place that we could implement fines,” Arndt said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn