Red Elm, Slippery Elm, Ulmus rubra…whatever name you want to call it, it is going to die!

During my childhood, I would come across many large trunks of trees that were long dead.

I always thought they were cottonwood trees because that is the common big tree on our place nowadays.

I was wrong.  Dutch Elm Disease swept through this area in the 1970’s, and with it, most of the large American Elms and Red Elms were killed.  Dead skeletons were everywhere, and actually to this day, these elms are still dying since they keep reproducing a new generation to die.