Is an american elm common in central Indiana?
Still common statewide as a volunteer and in fencerows and creek bottoms — what is gone is the mature street elm, not the species. Both Dutch elm disease and elm yellows (phloem necrosis) are established in Indiana, and elm yellows is the one nobody knows about because it kills DED-tolerant selections too; if a customer wants to replant elm, the tolerant American elm cultivars ('Valley Forge', 'New Harmony', 'Princeton', 'Jefferson') are tolerant and not immune, with 'Valley Forge' and 'New Harmony' carrying the longest test record.
Why that matters for tree work
Dutch elm disease took the street elms but the species never left central Indiana — it seeds aggressively, so volunteer elms are everywhere and they grow well right up until they are big enough to interest the bark beetles. What homeowners actually see is a decent thirty-to-forty-foot shade tree that flags one branch in June and is dead inside a season or two.
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