Elm

Recently I was reading the Vermont Center for Ecostudies blog about two USDA scientists who are doing some gene studies on American Elm  to see if the trees were tetraploids, triploids or diploids and disease tolerance to Dutch Elm Disease.  You really should go read the article, well, mainly because it does a better job at telling what is going on, I just glass over and wander off...

All kidding aside, a few years ago I had noticed some trees that looked elm like. I mentioned to a friend and we made plans to hunt them down and take a look. They are not the easiest place in the world to get to, like a alder choked floodplain. In the winter, it's hell to snowshoe in, crying comes to mind, and in the summer the plants grow up with abandon. Last summer Peter, Barry and I, (the 3 members of the Rangeley Botanical Society) floated down the Kennebago River where these elm like looking trees were, and finally got an identification. They were elms!  Healthy looking too. So last week when the VCE blog mentioned this study, I contacted the members of the RBS and then emailed Alan Whitemore about the trees.   He has expressed an interest in obtaining samples of them and come spring we'll get them. It will be very interesting to see how these trees stand.

And it also brings to light just how much study this area really needs.  We currently have no nature center or nature related museum in the area, but with the lakes, mountains with alpine features and the mixed forest types that we have, there is a need for a lot of study.