How does an american elm hold up in a storm?
The classic vase form is the structural problem — American elm builds several codominant leaders that separate high on the trunk, and those unions accumulate included bark and split under ice load. The bigger Indiana reality is that dead elms fail fast: a DED-killed elm goes brittle within a year or two and drops large wood unpredictably, so a standing dead elm is a far more urgent job than a standing dead oak of the same size.
What pruning can and can't prevent
Timing on elm is close to a legal-grade rule: no pruning between roughly April and October. Elm bark beetles are flying and feeding all growing season, and fresh cuts release volatiles that draw them straight to the wound carrying Dutch elm disease spores — so dormant-season only, and any elm wood you take down has to be chipped, burned or debarked rather than stacked as firewood, because the beetles breed under the bark of cut elm.
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