Dutch Elm Disease History

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Why “Dutch” elm disease?
The Dutch may have been unfairly blamed for the loss of millions of trees. “Dutch” elm disease got its name because Dutch scientists identified it when the disease made an appearance in Holland in 1917. From there, it spread quickly wiping out many of the European elms.

Origins
Scientists believe that the fungus that causes DED originally came from the Himalayas. It travelled to Europe from the Dutch East Indies in the late 1800’s. In the 1930’s, the disease spread to North America on wooden crates made with infected elm wood.

A second introduction of the disease in North America occurred in 1945 starting in Sorel, Quebec. It destroyed over half the remaining elm trees in eastern Canada and the US. By 1976, only 34 million elm trees were left.

New strains of the disease appeared in the 1960’s in England. Within 20 years, 17 million of the country’s 23 million elm trees were dead.

Source: "The American elm and Dutch elm disease" M. Hubbes, Forestry Chronicle, March/April 1999. Vol. 75, No. 2, p.265

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