Plant more elms - Prince of Wales

THE Prince of Wales has launched a new campaign to replace thousands of English elm trees which were decimated by disease over a period of 30 years until the 1990s.

It is estimated that some 25,000 of the archetypical English tree were killed off by Dutch elm disease which, despite its name, came to Britain in a shipment of timber from America.

The gaps in historic tree lines can still be seen in many old woodlands like missing teeth.

The Prince has already planted 40 imported American Princeton elms at his Gloucestershire home, Highgrove, and is encouraging other landowners and public authorities to follow suite. Ironically, these American elms are highly resistant to the killer fungal disease.

The scheme could be of interest here in the Yorkshire Dales - one of Prince Charles' favourite places - because this is one of the least wooded areas of the UK, thanks to massive felling in the 18th and 19th Centuries to make way for sheep pasture.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park already has a long-running project under way to increase this woodland and is concentrating on planting broadleaf species - of which the American elm is a prime specimen.

A specialist supplier in Dorset, Knoll Gardens, has imported 1,500 Princeton elm saplings and Prince Charles was one of their first customers.