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Mature elms have been practically wiped out in Europe by the Dutch elm disease epidemic. In an attempt to save elm diversity resources in Europe, Cemagref initiated coordination for the conservation of genetic resources in EU country.
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Elm is an important landscape tree, giving timber which used to have a considerable value. But for several years, its genetic resources are endangered. As a matter of fact, the two
Dutch elm disease (DED) pandemics that spread across Europe last century have caused dramatic mortality in elm populations, and the disease still represents a great threat for each individual elm tree. It has caused the death of most of the adult field elms (Ulmus minor Mill. sensu latissimo). It is even estimated that more than 90% of mature Ulmus minor disappeared from the French countryside in the 1919 and 1972 DED epidemics. Now they are occasioning heavy losses to Wych elm populations (U. glabra Huds.). The third elm species native to Europe, the European white elm (U. laevis Pall.), is less attractive to the elm bark beetle (Scolytus sp.) which spreads the spores of the fungus causing the disease (Ophiostoma novo-ulmi Brasier). It is therefore less damaged by DED, but still endangered because of the disappearance of the riparian ecosystem where it thrives. However, the statement that ‘elms are endangered species’ needs to be scrutinized and the situation of each elm species must be considered separately. Factors of importance in elm gene conservation must be discussed before practical recommendations for the implementation of elm gene conservation can be made. In 1996, a project was proposed to extend the elm genetic resource conservation programme to the whole of Europe. The proposal was accepted by the European Commission in 1997 and the
"conservation of elm genetic resources” project (GENRES CT96-78) regrouped fifteen partners in nine EU countries engaged on a five-year programme partially financed by the EU.
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