WHERE HAVE ALL THE ELM TREES GONE:

AN ANALYSIS OF THE HISTORY OF DUTCH ELM DISEASE IN MINNESOTA

My project focuses on Dutch elm disease, an invasive species that is thought to have originated in Asia and was brought to the United States in the 1930’s. This disease had claimed 43 million elms by 1976 and cost as much as $100 million annually to replace and remove these trees (Ecological Services Bulletin, number 6). We will take a look at the history of the disease, the destruction caused by the disease, the proposed preventative measure, and look briefly at what could have been done to prevent the devastation caused by this disease in hopes that we may learn from our past mistakes when dealing with future invasive species.