Dutch elm disease plan will cut hundreds of trees

The City of Charlottetown outlined plans to cut down hundreds of trees in order to get Dutch elm disease under control.

"Dutch elm disease is not really a curable disease," said parkland conservationist Beth Hoar at a public meeting Monday night.

"What we're trying to do is minimize the amount of disease we have in the population."

More than 300 elm trees are set to come down and a cost of about $500,000.

At a public meeting Monday, Hoar outlined where the trees are. She said there are infected trees in every corner of the city but most are in the downtown core.

Those who have sick trees will be notified by mail soon. The tree and the stump will be removed and the surrounding lawn repaired.

That's good news for Nelson Hurry, who has infected trees on his property.

"I'm sorry to see them go, but I'm very happy that city is supplying the money to take them out cause they'd have to come out. I don't want them left there," said Hurry.

The city will be planting one trees for every two it removes from public land. It is not replacing trees cut down on private land.

Work was scheduled to be completed by the end of April, but has been delayed by the bad winter weather. The city said work will begin when weather permits.