If you were to have a talk with an old timer around here they would tell you a couple of things about the 1950s-60s; namely deer were scarce, there weren't as many deer as there are nowadays. The other thing you'd learn is that elm trees were common and in a few instances dominant. The landscape around here includes bottomlands with a higher seasonal water table. Like similar species elm won't tolerate year-round water; but they don't mind getting their feet wet and prefer seasonally hydric soils found along stream banks and flood plains.
Today there are more whitetails on the landscape than anyone can remember and American Elm (Ulmus americana) has just about vanished.
Dutch Elm Disease (DED) was already established in Wisconsin by the 1950s. When plant pathologist Eugene Smalley joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 1957 he noted that Wisconsin's elms were being decimated by DED.
This UW Extension Service map from 1965 specifically documents when DED was first detected in each Wisconsin county.
An article from the Door County Advocate dated April, 23, 1968 reported that Wisconsin "was rapidly losing its elm shade trees" and the state Agriculture Department's Dutch Elm Advisory Council was recommending removing diseased elms and replacing them with other species. The implication is that by the time spring rolled-around in 1968 Dutch elm disease was a problem here.
And we know how it ended. The elm died-off and over the next three generations various ash species filled in the gaps. Around here, entire woodlots of ash flourished. The nearby Black Ash Swamp takes its name from the primary tree species found there. Until the Emerald Ash Borer arrived on the peninsula in 2014. Today the landscape around here is dominated by dead and dying ash trees.
It's difficult to know what will replace the ash. Soft maple varieties such as red and silver maple and box elder come to mind; but with the deer population as large as it is and these species high on the whitetail's list of preferred browse it's difficult to believe they stand a chance. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, I can tell you for a fact that elm still maintain a small toehold here and there. And over the last thirty years I've maintained a mental inventory of their locations. Because elm produce seed at a young age, before they are targeted by the elm bark beetle that spreads DED, the species has avoided extinction.
This one is located at the edge of the old campsite on the north side of Silver Creek. It shares its space with some swamp white oaks we planted, some willow and dead ash trees. At this moment in time it's looking healthy and hopefully producing seed that might become it's progeny. Fingers-crossed.
Initially I was not sure that this tree was absolutely, positively, an American elm. Perhaps it was a slippery elm? A forestry professional told me that leaf ID is unreliable and that an inspection of a bark cross section would reveal the answer. Breaking-off a piece of bark, Slippery elm is solid red while American elm has distinctive alternating red and white layers (like an American flag).
Fast Fact: In 1952, an elm tree in Egg Harbor reportedly had the second-largest girth of any elm in Wisconsin. The famous Jorns Elm was recorded as being 110 feet tall and sported a girth (circumference) of 35 feet. That's what we call a Champion Tree!
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