BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 8, 2024
There’s a reason why most towns have an Elm Street — because towering, elegant elm trees were the pride of cities nationwide, treasured as far back as Colonial times. Houses and other buildings were built around native elms, which were nurtured as assets to the community. New ones were planted along streets like natural monuments. Elm trees were ubiquitous and beloved. By the 1980s, 75 percent of the country’s elm trees were gone. A bark beetle that arrived on a ship in New York in 1928 spread a fungus that infected elm trees, causing them to die off from inside and slowly rot away.