Plan to save the American elm branches out : A nonprofit group provides disease-resistant trees. Boy Scouts then become ‘Johnny Elmseeds.’

Joseph E. Walker remembers a time in the 1940s when dozens of ancient shady elm trees lined the streets of this town on Massachusetts’ South Shore.

“It was like driving through a cathedral,” he said of the tunnel-like effect of passing under the branches of the stately elms.

Today those trees are but a memory in Middleboro, the victims of the Dutch elm disease that has devastated the species.

According to some estimates, the disease--a fungus spread by beetles that breed under the bark--has caused the death of more than 100 million trees nationwide since it was discovered around 1932.

The disappearance of the American elm, which had been favored by communities since Colonial times because of its decorative and hardy qualities, has changed the face of main streets across the country. In New England, where elms were as integral a part of the traditional landscape as white churches and town commons, the change has been particularly marked.

But gloom about the future of the American elm has recently been replaced by a surge of hope that the tree is headed for a comeback.

Fueling that hope is the recent development of elm varieties that closely resemble the traditional American elm but are resistant to Dutch elm disease.

The Elm Research Institute in Harrisville, N.H., introduced one of those varieties, the American Liberty elm, in 1983, and a year later began a program to distribute it.

The American Liberty elm resists Dutch elm disease because its vessels are too narrow to allow the tree-killing fungus to circulate, thus allowing the tree to “wall off the disease,” said John P. Hansel, the institute director. The fungus kills traditional American elms by blocking needed fluids.

Institute researchers had already introduced a fungicide capable, when injected into healthy elms, of slowing their infection.

Under its “Johnny Elmseed” program, the nonprofit institute supplies young elms from its nursery to local Boy Scout troops, which raise the trees in plots in their home communities. After two to three years, the Scouts replant the trees around town or sell them to residents.

Last fall, the institute began inviting municipalities to subsidize the elm purchases by becoming institute members. Until then, Scout groups had to seek funding themselves from local governments or civic groups.

The institute’s goal is to distribute one million American Liberty elms by the year 2000, said Hansel, who founded the institute in 1967. To date, more than 500 communities nationwide have received elms.

The program appears to be a hit with residents in participating communities.

“The people are very enthused,” said Walker, a former selectman who arranged for the purchase of about 200 trees in Middleboro two years ago. “A lot of them can remember in their younger days when the streets were lined with trees.”

Walker said about 35 of the trees, now about 12 to 14 feet high, have been replanted around town, and the remainder will be replanted this fall. The trees will grow to 100 to 150 feet in height and have a life expectancy of about 200 years.

In Rutland, Mass., which acquired about 200 trees and has replanted 24, “the townspeople are happy to see” the sight of the elms returning, said Carl G. Christianson, superintendent of public works. He said elm trees are “almost part of your heritage.”

But the program has drawn caution from some experts. Lawrence R. Schreiber, a research plant pathologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ohio, noted that no elm varieties have yet proved to be immune to disease and that it would be a mistake for towns to plant only one variety.

But Hansel said the institute has never advocated that American Liberty elms be planted to the exclusion of other trees, and that the million trees it hopes to plant would replace only a fraction of the 100 million or so that died.

In California, meanwhile, a quarantine on the importation of elms remains in effect while researchers study the disease-resistant qualities of the American Liberty elm and other new varieties. Hansel said he hopes the ban will be lifted soon.

For those who have planted the elms, the thrill of rekindling a lost species seems to outweigh any uncertainties about the future of the trees. Steve Savory, a former Rutland Cub Scout, said he hopes to return to his town one day and say: “Hey, look at that tree. I planted it.”