Freshly planted trees will soon line the streets of State College.

Each year, sick and dying trees in the borough are removed, and new ones are brought in to replace them, said State College Borough arborist Alan Sam. The borough budgets around $20,000 per year for the replacement trees.

The borough is spending $15,785 for replacement trees this year, said borough purchasing director Ernie Dabiero. Each tree costs about $127.

"We're known as a place with lots of trees," said council member Tom Daubert. "It's about 50 cents per person."

The majority of the trees selected for removal have fallen victim to disease or decay, Sam said.

The damaged or diseased trees are cut down over the winter and the stumps taken out, he said.

"We're removing trees right now," Sam said.

The borough will start planting new trees in March, he said. When the replacement trees arrive in State College, they are about 7 to 10 feet tall, Sam said.

With the help of a backhoe, the trees are planted in the "tree lawn," the strip of grass between the road and the sidewalk. When selecting a replacement, the borough tries to choose the largest tree with the most canopy area possible, he said.

However, there are some limitations to the process, Sam said.

What type of tree is planted depends on the size of the planting area, power lines overhead and the proximity to buildings, Sam said. The choice also depends on the soil type, how large the tree will grow and what type of tree was planted in the spot last, he said.

"We try to maximize the variety," he said. "Right now we have around 150 varieties." State College and Penn State have one of the largest elm populations in the country, Sam said.

At the turn of the century, communities across the country planted large numbers of American Elms.

"They had a nice shape and feel to them," Sam said. The trees provided large amounts of shade and a cathedral-like canopy. However, when Dutch Elm Disease began spreading across the country in the 1930s thousands of the trees were devastated.

"State College was lucky because it had other trees also," he said.

"We were able to gear up with Penn State and take some preventative measures."

Dutch Elm Disease is a fungus carried by the elm bark beetle. The fungus clogs the vessels inside the tree, Sam said, starving it of water. "We have a very aggressive program," he said, citing elm bark beetle treatments and fungicide injections. "State College still has around 80 street tree elms."

In the past, mist blowers were the most common way to kill the beetles and the larva that live in the elms' bark, Sam said. Penn State has even used helicopters to spray its elm trees. However, the trend is moving more toward using injections.

Although the spray used is safe, injections limit the chance of someone coming in contact with the chemical.