Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved. Current Biology, Volume
19, Issue 17, R720, 15 September 2009 FeatureAdd/View Comments
(0) New elm hopes - A new project is hoping to help restore one
devastated British tree. Nigel Williams reports. Britain's
population of elm trees, one of the most desirable sources of
hardwood timber, has been decimated, not by logging but by
disease. The beetles carrying the lethal fungus of Dutch elm
disease have almost wiped out the species from the UK. But a few
have persisted, often in geographically or other physically
isolated situations, and a new project now plans to plant
saplings propagated from these survivors to see if they have
survived because of immunity to the disease. The charity
Conservation Foundation is planning to plant 2,000 saplings
later this year with the help of schoolchildren. Some scientists
are concerned that surviving British elms exist because of their
isolation from invading beetles rather than inherent resistance
but the new experiment should determine