The Last Elm of Mont-Royal

Montreal once had roughly 22,000 American elms. Dutch elm disease took very nearly all of them. This is one of the few still standing. It grows on the margin of the Smith House property in Parc du Mont-Royal, on the edge next to the Olmsted Trail, and at 110 centimetres across the trunk and 128 at the base it is the largest American elm documented anywhere in the park. The city's survey reads those measurements as roughly 120 years, and the measuring was done some years ago, so add what it has grown since. It appears to have seeded itself rather than been planted, which is now an unusual biography for an elm: the ones that were planted were mostly along streets, and the streets are where the disease moved fastest. What nobody can promise is that it will still be here. The disease has not gone anywhere, it travels between elms through root grafts and beetles, and a tree this size is a target rather than a fortress. The city's own heritage page is the only published record of this elm, and it has not been marked as lost, which is the most recent evidence there is that the tree is alive. Treat that as a reason to go this season rather than next. If you get there and it is gone, tell us and we will take it down.