Gravelbourg & District Tribune

More trees.

 

Gravelbourg town administration is buying trees and continuing with a tree-planting program. That is good news.

 

Gravelbourg’s elm tree population is ageing out. They will need replacement and soon.

 

Several years ago council had asked a tree specialist if he could identify which elm trees were sick or suffering from Dutch elm disease. He said it was too difficult to know since most of the trees in town are stressed because of the drought conditions. Lee’s Tree Care has been hired for several years now and doing a lot of work trimming and cleaning dead limbs etc. on all town trees. That kind of activity will probably save some of them.

 

The question is what to plant to replace the elm? A fast growing alternative is the Princeton elm, silver maple and river birch. The American elm cultivars are resistant to Dutch elm disease. Apparently the river birch creates beautiful shade. The question is will these trees survive in a drought prone area like Gravelbourg?

 

If you want trees to survive you need a solid watering program. For many years the former Gravelbourg Home Hardware Building business run by the late Roland Boire and his wife Diane secured trees for the town thru a program launched by the parent company. They were planted along the highways leading into Gravelbourg and then completely ignored. Most, if not all of them, died. A huge waste. No follow up.

 

It is nice to see council continue with tree planting but now they must create a plan to keep them alive.

 

A good watering program is what is needed. Not a street sweeping program.