The City of Regina is reminding residents it is illegal to transport elm wood throughout the province.
“We’re heading into the long weekend and we’re asking residents to have a lot of fun and enjoy it but we’re also asking residents to think about the things that they are doing and how it can impact you for pests,” said Russell Eirich, Forestry, Pest Control & Horticulture, City of Regina. “Specifically for those residents who are going to go out and enjoy cottage country or camping country, a lot of the areas around the city has Dutch Elm Disease, we’re starting up our own monitoring program but we are asking residents to not bring back any elm wood.”
The City is trying to prevent Dutch Elm Disease from impacting trees in the city. Crews are monitoring elm trees in the city and they are looking for symptoms of the disease. The city said crews haven't seen any Dutch Elm Disease yet this year but expects it will see it soon. There are about forty five thousand elm trees in Regina which makes up about 35 per cent of the urban forest canopy. The City said our elm trees are worth about $800 million.
"They are starting to look for any curling, wilting leaves, on the trees but the leaves themselves are not falling off,” said Eirich. “That’s going to be the first sign, if they see that they are going to want to take a cut and they are going to actually want to tear the bark off a little bit and they are going to actually look at the wood underneath and look for some staining they are going to submit it to a lab."
The City is also reminding residents to not leave standing water in their yards unless it’s covered with a netting to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs.
“A pale of water will create a thousand misquotes,” said Eirich.
