Reply #41: Yes, this does sound like Dutch Elm disease. [View All]

[amandabeech]

Now, in the areas around Detroit, the Emerald Ash Borer is killing all the ash trees, many of which were planted to replace elms.

Then there's the oak disease in the West and is it the Hemlock problem in the East?

I was reading about the tree diseases, and efforts to hybridize North American specimens with their resistance overseas cousins for Ash, Elm and Chestnut. The goal was to get the gene for diseases resistance while keeping the genes that make the N. American tree look and grow the same.
Some researchers were trying to use gene transplant instead of normal hybridization because it may produce resistant trees more quickly.