A nationwide search is underway to find how many disease resistant elm trees planted thirty years ago have survived. Sapporo Autumn Gold is a hybrid, brought to the UK by technology company Pitney Bowes, who created the Elms Across Europe campaign in 1979, which led to the setting up of The Conservation Foundation in 1982.
The Elms Across Europe campaign supplied large numbers of elms to schools, parks and gardens throughout the UK and Europe.
The UK’s very first Sapporo Autumn Gold elms, planted by the American Ambassador at Pitney Bowes’ Harlow headquarters in 1979, still survive. From then, until the early 1980’s many more plantings followed around this country and in Europe as part of the campaign to help replace some of the millions of elms lost as a result of Dutch elm disease.
The Conservation Foundation is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first plantings by researching healthy Sapporo Autumn Gold elms still growing. Anyone with a Sapporo Autumn Gold is invited to send details to elms@conservationfoundation.co.uk.