Article about the successful battle waged in Kennebunkport to save the town's gr

Jeff Clark

Source

Down East

Date

7-1-1994

Pages

45-46

Abstract

Article about the successful battle waged in Kennebunkport to save the town's graceful elm trees. The efforts of the late Ralph Smith, Kennebunkport's tree warden in the early 1960s, and Carter Harris, now 89, managed to save 140 of the town's 2,000 soaring trees, the largest collection of mature American elms left in any town in the state. Rather than fighting the disease, many towns, including neighboring Kennebunk, simple surrendered by cutting down all the elm in one fell swoop to avoid the more expensive, piecemeal removal of dead and dying trees. The disease that killed the trees was first reported in Maine in the early 1950s, but didn't pick up steam until a decade later. There is hope that the elm will again grace town and city streets, since a disease resistant elms have been found in Midwest.

Subjects

Elm, Kennebunkport, Trees

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