Celebrating the American Elm

American Elms on the National Mall.

This January, we are celebrating the American Elm. This native tree is one of the oldest continuous residents of Washington, DC, and is a hardy street tree that provides shade and beauty for many neighborhoods in our city. As any District resident knows, or any visitor to the National Mall can see, elms are a defining part of DC’s status as the city of trees.

Winter 2011 should be a great season for elms – Casey Trees is planting 100 “Valley Forge” American Elms in Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6, in locations identified by the Urban Forestry Administration. Areas in which we are planting include Capitol Hill, Mount Pleasant, the Bladensburg Road NE corridor near the National Arboretum, and Nebraska Avenue NW near Tenleytown. You can view maps of the proposed planting locations on our website.

Throughout January we will share articles featuring the American Elm both past and present, and we will discuss our current planting efforts. You can keep up with us here by subscribing to our RSS feed, or by following us on Twitter or liking us on Facebook. We invite you to learn more about our American Elm Restoration program on our website, where you can find out where we are planting American Elms this year. You can also use the Casey Trees Map to explore the historic American Elm corridors, elms planted by Casey Trees, and learn about some of the elms featured as Trees of Note in our city.