Wolseley Residents' Association
Tree Committee
About 10 blocks of Wolseley’s elm trees will be inoculated over the next two weeks through a community-led initiative to fight Dutch elm disease. Residents are urging the city to step up efforts to protect these decades-old trees.
DID YOU KNOW?
Westminster and Wolseley Avenues are the gateways to our neighbourhood. There are only 170 elm trees left on these two streets that create Wolseley’s distinct character.
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Dutch Elm Disease (DED) is killing an average of 20 elm trees every year on Wolseley and Westminster alone.
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If nothing is done, in 10 years every elm tree will be gone on these two streets.
Saving Wolseley's Elms Project
The Wolseley neighbourhood has long been known and loved for its beautiful canopy of mature elms, particularly on our gateway streets — Wolseley and Westminster. Over the past few years, we have noticed tree after tree marked and cut down due to Dutch Elm Disease (DED). Currently, about 20 elms are being killed by DED each year due to DED.
If nothing is done, there will be no elms left on these streets in 10 years.
BUT something is being done!
This spring the TREE COMMITTEE of the Wolseley Residents Association, launched “SAVE OUR ELMS” — a project to preserve the elms on our two main streets.
PHASE 1 is UNDERWAY: Our neighbourhood campaign in June & July raised $27,000. In addition, we received a $5000 grant from Assiniboine Credit Union; Green Drop generously offered a discount on inoculating and have supported us financially. All told, we raised enough to inoculate over 56 of the 165 elm trees on Wolseley and Westminster. Arborists, the City Forestry Branch, and committee members chose a section of trees on Wolseley that would help ensure success for a “partial inoculation”. This type of root inoculation/protection lasts for a 3-year period.
PHASE 2 is planned for this Fall (2025): We will launch a neighbourhood business campaign; and will seek more grant funding. The goal of Phase 2 is to inoculate the remaining healthy elms on Wolseley and Westminster.
This “Save the Elms” initiative is the first part of the WRA’s Urban Forest Strategy for Wolseley that aims to
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preserve the mature elm canopy,
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slow the rate of DED tree mortality and, in turn,
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provide time for replanted trees to grow under a mature tree canopy.
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The strategy will focus on a 10-year period from 2025 to 2035, with inoculations occurring every 3 years. Community support got the project started, and we aim to secure long-range funding to support the project.
THANK YOU
Thank you to the generous Wolseley residents who supported the fundraising campaign. While we are able to acknowledge individual GoFundMe donations via that platform, this website is the only way we can reach those donors who e-transferred funds or who wrote a cheque. So, to all of you: THANK YOU SO MUCH!
ADOPT A TREE: Several donors gave enough to cover the full cost of inoculating one tree.
Ian Dyck, from the Wolseley Residents’ Association tree committee, speaks with host Marcy Markusa about a grassroots campaign to inoculate and save all the remaining elm trees in Winnipeg’s Wolseley neighbourhood. They talk about the threat of Dutch Elm Disease, how the inoculation works, the $100,000 fundraising goal, and why preserving mature elms is more cost-effective than replacing dead trees.
Saving Wolseley’s Elm Trees
A Community Fights Dutch Elm Disease
How Can I Help?
Wolseley has a long histoy of working togther to protect our trees. Please consider donating to save our trees today.
