This time of year when the trees leaf out I remember the American elm in front of my house when I was a kid. Its limbs flared toward the sky like an elegant vase, the branches and leaves spreading a canopy as wide as the tree’s height. The flat, egg-shaped seeds covered our sidewalk and driveway. Then Dutch elm disease made its way to Buffalo, and the elms lining our street withered and the city cut them down, and our street was widened to accommodate more traffic, and we moved, and I don’t know if I’ve seen an American elm tree since. Foresters are fighting back by cultivating American elms that can resist the dreaded disease.
