8:38am Saturday 20th March 2010
BOTANIST David Bellamy visited a primary school to teach children about the importance of an elm tree experiment.
Pupils at St Mark’s Elm Tree Primary School, in Fairfield, Stockton, are taking part in the Conservation Foundation’s Great British Elm experiment to unlock a horticultural mystery.
Successive generations of pupils will monitor and care for an elm tree – watching it grow from a sapling to a mature specimen.
The Conservation Foundation is running the experiment to discover why some trees survived Dutch elm disease, which killed 25 million elm trees from the Sixties onwards.
Conservation Foundation founder Mr Bellamy visited the school to talk about the project and Stockton Mayor Paul Kirton helped pupils plant the sapling.
Val Hall, headteacher of St Mark’s school, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the first schools to join the experiment. We thought it was particularly apt for the school to be involved, given elm tree is in our school name and we are on the Elm Tree Estate.”
The school will monitor the sapling regularly.
The Conservation Foundation will report on the experiment as it develops and data recorded will be reviewed by an Elm Advisory Group of experts and enthusiasts.
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