
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995                   TAG: 9505310019
SECTION: EDITORIALS                    PAGE: G-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A COMEBACK

WHERE AN American elm tree was felled by Dutch elm disease on the state Capitol grounds in Richmond, there stands today a 20-foot-tall American Liberty elm.

Planted on Earth Day just two years ago by the Arbor Committee of Fauquier County, it is a fitting symbol of efforts nationwide, by large groups and small, to restore the beautiful and useful elm to the yards and along the streets of communities across the land.

The spouses of Republican members of Virginia's General Assembly joined the campaign this year. As part of Operation Spruce Up 1995, a program to clean up and beautify state parks, the husbands and wives of legislators donated 50 elm saplings to the state.

Boy Scout troops, in conjunction with the Elm Research Institute, are running "Johnny Elmseed" nurseries to nurture young trees till they are ready to be transplanted, thus contributing to conservation efforts, providing a service to their communities and raising money, to boot.

Whatever the cause or the group, the worthy goal is to replace lost elms with this disease-resistant variety. The institute estimates that more than half the nation's 100 million elm trees have fallen to the disease. (The nonprofit institute in Harrisville, N.H., not only developed the American Liberty, but also a fungicide that protects healthy elms, and saves more than half of diseased trees treated at the first sign of the affliction.)

The beautiful American elm is supposed to grow to 75 or 100 feet and live more than 200 years, providing shade for people and housing for orioles. It is their favorite home, the encyclopedia notes. And when the trees are felled, they yield a tough, light brown wood good for building everything from barrels to boats.

Disease has deprived a lot of orioles of their favored homeplace, and a lot of people of the pleasures of driving, walking, playing and resting in the shade of this popular tree. The hardy American Liberty elm - resistant not only to disease but to roadside pollution and damage from drought - promises to restore some of that loss.

But it is the work of community groups that are planting the seeds - or rather, the saplings - of recovery for this valued natural resource.

by CNB