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Sacramento’s elms need eyes – yours

Take a walk and save a tree in this volunteer program

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 26, 2021

Sacramento's remaining heritage elms are threatened by disease and development. The Sacramento Tree Foundation is recruiting volunteers to keep an eye on the elms. (Photo courtesy Sacramento Tree

Foundation)

Consider this a neighborhood watch for favorite trees.

The Sacramento Tree Foundation is recruiting volunteers to take part in a census of the city’s tallest residents – century-old elms. Endangered by disease and development, these beloved trees have dwindled, greatly decreasing Sacramento’s tree canopy.

Once home to many thousands of big elms, Sacramento now has just about 1,900 remaining American, English and Siberian elms. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

This is where SacTree’s STEP – Save the Elms Program – steps up. The foundation needs volunteer “community scientists” to visually check on these remaining trees and see if they’re doing OK. Volunteers use a downloadable app to relay their observations to the foundation with the goal of saving our remaining heritage elms.

“Our heritage elm trees are the most historic and iconic of Sacramento’s trees,” says the foundation. “Elms represent a remarkable legacy spanning generations; many of our elms are over 100 years old and climb as high as 130 feet into the city skyline.

“But they’ve been in trouble for a while,” added the foundation. “Dutch elm disease (DED), a fatal and contagious fungal disease with no cure, has plagued our city since the 1990s.”

Protecting the remaining elms is vital to our tree canopy.

“Replacing this elm canopy and the benefits provided to our community is not possible,” says the foundation. “Large mature trees provide the most benefits, but they require a lot of space to thrive. As our city grew up around these elm trees, their planter sizes shrunk to make room for buildings, roads and sidewalks. Because most of today’s planters are no longer large enough to accommodate another large tree, once these heritage elms are lost, the health, economic and environmental benefits of their immense canopies will be lost forever.”

The volunteer effort is coordinated with the City of Sacramento’s Urban Forestry program to monitor the remaining elms and slow the spread of Dutch elm disease. This summer program continues through September while the trees still have their green foliage and before they drop their leaves in fall.

Volunteers (as well as anyone interested) can watch an informative video on the warning signs of Dutch elm disease on SacTree’s website. Download the STEP app, then take a walk around your neighborhood. Your local elms will thank you.

Details and links: https://www.sactree.com/

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Keywords:

volunteering gardening Sacramento City of Trees elms trees Sacramento Tree Foundation heritage trees Dutch elm disease leaf canopy

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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