Fewer trees being planted as city fights Dutch elm disease
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/05/2017 (3080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
City hall is cutting back on its tree-planting program this year to concentrate on combating the spread of Dutch elm disease.
A civic spokeswoman said the city’s parks division is re-allocating $500,000 from its tree-planting budget to boost its 2017 budget-approved $5-million Dutch elm disease program.
The change in funding means the city will be planting about 600 fewer trees this year than it did in 2016.
The spokeswoman said parks planted 2,757 trees in 2016, but would plant 2,200 this year because of the Dutch elm disease situation.
According to the council budget book, the city spent $1.735 million in 2016, and council approved an increase for 2017 to $1.791 million.
The spokeswoman said parks had identified 6,459 elm trees at the start of the 2016 season that had to be removed because they were afflicted with Dutch elm disease.
The city still has more than 1,300 elm trees to be removed and is concentrating its parks crews to get them all done this year.
“Elm tree removals must be completed in a timely manner to prevent further increases in the spread of (Dutch elm disease) — failure to do this increases disease potential and is expected to result in a continued high volume of elm losses,” the spokeswoman said.
Tree-planting work is being contracted exclusively to the private sector this year, while civic crews concentrate on removing diseased elm trees, the spokeswoman said. In past years, the tree-planting program was handled by both civic crews and private contractors.
The tree-planting program will be evaluated in the summer based on the progress that’s been made on removing the afflicted elm trees, the spokeswoman said.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca