FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, April 14, 2008

For more information contact:
Bill Clary

(502) 564-4696

COMMISSIONER FARMER ASKS KENTUCKIANS
NOT TO STRIP BARK FROM SLIPPERY ELM TREES

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has joined Kentucky forestry experts in urging citizens to refrain from stripping the bark from slippery elm trees. Numerous trees reportedly were stripped of their bark last year.

“Stripping all the bark from a slippery elm tree will kill the tree,” Commissioner Farmer said. “Slippery elm bark can be harvested in a way that will enable the tree to live and remain productive.”

Hundreds of elm trees were damaged last year, including about 100 on individual residences and many more on federal property in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

“Selling slippery elm bark is legal, but taking it from somebody else’s property or from public lands is not,” Commissioner Farmer pointed out.

Slippery elm bark is recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a safe and effective option for treatment of sore throat and respiratory symptoms such as cough, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center Web site. It also is used to treat wounds, cuts, certain skin conditions (including diaper rash) and gastrointestinal ailments, the UM Web site says.

Diana Olszowy of the Kentucky Division of Forestry said the wood can be used in applications that require cutting against the grain, such as parts of a rocking chair or the part of a banister that curls at one end.

Deborah Hill, Extension forestry professor at the University of Kentucky, said slippery elm bark can be harvested in one or two strips an inch wide. The tree will live and the wound may close over time, she said.

“Stripping a slippery elm tree is an unsustainable and counterproductive way to make a buck,” Hill said. “There’s nothing wrong with harvesting slippery elm bark, but [stripping all the bark] is killing the goose that laid the golden egg.”

Stripping all the bark off a slippery elm “is like taking all the skin off a human being,” she said.

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