123-year-old American elm tree to come down in Victoria Park

If a tree falls in Victoria Park, does it make a sound?

It will when crews come to take down a 123-year-old American elm in the park on Sunday.

Veronica Schroder, the City of Regina’s co-ordinator of forestry, horticulture and integrated pest management, said problems were rooted in the tree’s age. Its health is the reason for its removal.

“We want to make sure the tree is removed before it becomes a hazard to other trees as well as patrons of the park,” Schroder said Thursday.

Crews have tried to only prune the elderly giant a minimal amount to remove dead wood, and have fenced it off for public events. Thirteen years ago, redial trenching was done to stop compaction and aerate the root layers.

The tree has continued to deteriorate with age, and drought has strained trees in the park.

Schroder said the city wants to keep as many trees as it can, but because this one is an American elm, the city wants to ensure it does not get Dutch elm disease.

According to the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources website, American elms have a life span of 200 to 250 years. Before Dutch elm disease, the tree species would live 300 to 400 years.

Schroder said that American elms in urban settings do not last as long.

About 30 per cent of the trees in Regina are American elms.

Taking this one down early allows the city to make use of the wood.

Schroder branched out on the plans for the wood. It will be used for ceremonial burns in Indigenous communities, and the leftover trunk will be used by the city’s art sector group.

The balding American elm is not the oldest tree in Regina, but it is the oldest in Victoria Park. It’s also one of the oldest planted trees in Regina.

There are no plans to replace the tree right now, but the plan is to continue to plant trees around the city.

Various other trees in the park had dying branches, but Schroder said drought had affected the trees.

“These trees are certainly stressed but I don’t think they need to come down at this moment,” said Schroder.

Crews prune the trees in the park when needed.

The City of Regina plants at least 800 trees a year into Regina’s urban forests. Regina has 500,000 trees in the city that remove 3,330 mid-sized vehicles worth equivalents of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.