Dutch Elm Disease: The Fungus that Changed the Face of St. Paul

The houses of my childhood - both the ones I lived in as well as those of my extended family - were shaded by stately old trees, full of leaves and towering over the homes. No matter which street it was - Johnson Parkway, Bush, Earl, Orange, Wheelock Parkway, Lane Place, Sherwood - the homes I frequented on the East Side of St. Paul all had one thing in common: elm trees lined the streets, in many places making a virtual canopy over them.

It seems that every house I can remember from my childhood and every street I rode my bike on or walked along was filled with those beautiful tall trees. Their shade kept the houses cool in the summer and their thick trunks gave us plenty of space to conceal ourselves behind for games of hide and seek. Those thick leafy trees gave homes to squirrels and birds. They surrounded Lake Phalen, and they gave shade to an unofficial beach spot there commonly known as "the Point." (You won't find it on any map, but anyone who lived on the East Side near Lake Phalen back in those days knows exactly where it is.)

The Point was on East Shore Drive, directly across from the main beach house at the end of Earl Street. Generally occupied by small groups of teenagers like my friends and me, it was occasionally visited by park police who would make us leave. But we liked it because it wasn't crowded, and since the trees came down close to the water, there was plenty of cool shade and the sand didn't scorch your feet like it did across the lake at the public beach. Parks like Phalen and Como were filled with elms.

I recall driving down Wheelock Parkway where my grandparents lived, between Arcade and Walsh. It was like going through a green tunnel. That part of Wheelock was a divided street, and plenty of elms grew in the grassy strips between the sides of the street in addition to those along the sidewalks. The same was true of Lane Place, where we lived at 1128. That street - just a couple of blocks long, between Maryland and Jessamine, had a triangle-shaped section of land in between the sides of the street, and that was our neighborhood's private park, filled with elm trees.

This elm is dying from Dutch elm disease

There were all kinds of spots like this around St. Paul. Minneapolis was probably like that, too, but we didn't venture over there. (When I was a kid, Minneapolis was like a foreign country.) Huge, green elm trees were everywhere.

Until Dutch elm disease seemed to explode in the early 1970s. Apparently the first cases were noted in 1960 or 1961, but in a decade it was an epidemic in many communities in the U.S. St. Paul got hit hard. So the city made the decision to take out almost all the elm trees, even the healthy ones. 'Xs' appeared on trees everywhere - markers to alert the tree removal crews.

Gov. Wendell Anderson backed a state-wide effort to eradicate the disease. Homeowners were encouraged to report the location of elms to assist in the removal. Due to aggressive action in some neighborhoods, a few hardy ones were spared, being treated with a chemical infusion. There remain a couple American elms on St. Paul's Landmark Tree list. These trees are over 100 years old! Minneapolis was a little luckier, and they were able to save about a third of their elms.

With the onset of Dutch elm disease, St. Paul became a wasteland, looking much like a war zone. Since 90% of the trees along streets were elms, you can imagine the effect of taking most of them out in a very short time. So the city fathers made the decision to re-green the city by recommending putting in fast-growing trees: ash. The last time I drove through St. Paul - about 2012 - I was surprised how those trees had grown. Of the three little four-foot saplings I helped my dad plant in our front yard on Lane Place, only one remains, and I was surprised at how tall it had grown. Like some other homeowners around the city, my dad also planted one on our boulevard, and it, too has survived. I suspect the other three he put into our yard fell victim to yet another insect that preyed on a specific tree species - the emerald ash borer.

Note: I think that the boulevard trees must have been something owners and not the city put in, because at least in my old neighborhood there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the trees along the street. There are several varieties, of various ages. Some homes have none at all.

The photo below is the most recent one I've seen of our old neighborhood. My dad had planted two other mountain ash trees in the front of the house - one on either side of the front entry - with the intention that they would provide shade from the afternoon sun. The birch was a later addition, also his. The left side of the house - having lost its intended shade tree, now sits in full sun. Later owners put in central A/C, which would be needed without that shade. The sunny window is the living room, and it would be uncomfortable in the summer I am sure.

1128 Lane Place today (Google maps image)

The grassy triangle in between the sides of the street also suffered from the loss of the elms. I recalled the spot as thick with trees and having very green grass because the elms shaded it in the summer. Those large elms were great spots for skinny kids to hide behind, and we had many a picnic beneath their branches. This Google maps photo shows the area today - some trees were planted, but nothing it looks nothing like in the 1960s and early 1970s.

New beetle-resistant elms were developed, and they are scattered throughout the city, but not in the numbers of the old American elms. Yes, those nasty bark beetles that spread the fungus changed the face of the city, yet in some ways I wonder if it wasn't for the better. Instead of a uniform look, you now see trees of varying heights, with leaves of crimson and different shades of green. There is more diversity now, which seems wise, because a species-specific threat can no longer affect the entire city.

Still, I miss those old elms.

(If you'd like to learn more in depth about the history of Dutch elm disease in the Twin Cities, the MNHS has a great article with some fantastic pictures. Click here to read.)