American Elm – Hardwood

July 12, 2026 (my 50th birthday)

The heck with candles, I want 50 trees!

Today is my 50th birthday and I am spending it traveling through New England to climb the state tree of each state in the Northeast. Last year I set a personal goal to climb the state tree of every US state to bring attention to our nation’s forests.

Today I climbed an American Elm (Ulmus americana) near Pittsfield Massachusetts for my 10th climb. The tree was chosen as the state tree to commemorate the continental army being placed under the command of George Washington in 1775 under a giant Elm tree in Cambridge common.

Massachusetts has a healthy forest products industry generating over a billion dollars in revenue each year. One of my personal favorites to come from these forests are the Maple and Hickory drum sticks made by Zildjian drum corporation.

My son Calvin has an axe handle made from Elm. The wood is very strong and resistant to splitting.

Elm trees are historically important to many Native American groups as well. Many important councils were held under the branches of these towering trees. Ecologically they provide important food to many animals and birds.

I’ve often noticed branch ends of Elms laying all over the ground in the spring time. The clean snip mark made it clear that squirrels were the culprit but I didn’t learn why until reading further about this today. Gray Squirrels love to eat the seed clusters from Elms, known as Samaras. They will bite the ends off, gather them, and eat the seeds like corn on the cob!

These trees love wet soils. A mature tree can soak up 200 gallons of water per day.

They have been under attack for over 100 years from an introduced fungus known as Dutch Elm disease. The fungus is often lethal to the trees and their numbers are only a fraction of what used to be up and down the East coast of the continent.