Standing near the bare branches of one of Penn State's iconic elm trees Thursday, university officials said nearly 50 of about 290 elms on campus are infected with a deadly disease, and the university has plans to remove most or all of the infected trees.
The prognosis for the remaining healthy elms, longtime staples on campus, is not optimistic, they added.
The university has identified 47 elms on campus -- 14 of which are planted in the core campus -- infected with elm yellows disease, a deadly and incurable infection first identified in some on-campus trees last fall. The disease is spread by an insect known as the elm leafhopper, though officials have not found the actual insect anywhere on campus.
Management programs to contain the disease have worked to some extent, but the healthy elm trees on campus are still in danger, Office of Physical Plant (OPP) Superintendent of Grounds Jeff Dice said.
"The concern about elm yellows is a potential that we could lose them all very quickly," Dice said. "We could get lucky, but at this point it is not very optimistic."
He added the disease had never been seen in the area until it was detected last year in four trees outside Penn State President Graham Spanier's house.
Since then, it has "spread exponentially" to 47 elms across campus this year, including trees on Burrowes Street and Pattee Mall, University Tree Commission chairwoman Kelleann Foster said.
"The problem with elm yellows is that there's no way to treat it," she said. "The best way to protect trees that don't have it is to take elms down."
Many of the infected trees will be removed shortly, and removal will continue throughout the winter, OPP spokesman Paul Ruskin said.
The university will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to removed infected trees, university spokesman Mike Bezilla said.
"No tree will be removed unless it's tested positive multiple times for the disease," Bezilla said.
Removing and replacing the trees will be expensive, Ruskin said, though he could not say specifically how much it will cost.
"There haven't been any estimates I know of," he said. "And you can't put a dollar value on our heritage. This goes beyond that."
To combat the disease, the university has tentative plans to inject some infected and healthy trees with an antibiotic-like substance in an experimental attempt to halt the spread of the disease, Bezilla said.
The university is considering using several different tree species to replace the removed elm trees, including oak and sycamore trees, OPP landscape designer Derek Kalp said.
The news many of the elm trees on campus face death and removal will be a "bitter pill" for some, said Roger Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association.
"The American elms on the University Park campus are really an iconic part," Williams said. "Our alumni are going to be deeply disappointed."
Foster said she worries the two matching elm trees in front of Old Main will eventually be affected, likening the onslaught of the disease at Penn State to "a hurricane coming through."
"I will cry if we lose those two trees in front of Old Main," she said.
The oldest elms on campus date back to the 1890s, according to a university press release. Class gifts from the Class of 1986 and the Class of 1996 have raised funds to support the elms on campus. The university will work with both classes to determine the next step, according to the press release.
Walking down Pattee Mall Thursday, Matt Manley (junior-energy, business and finance) said something would be missing from the campus atmosphere without the elms.
"The campus is so beautiful, and if the trees would be diminished, it would just make it less interesting," he said.
