a picture of the bark .. and a leaf.. will probably get an ID from some of the experts here .... and that is where the differences will start to present themselves ...

once you have an ID ... then the sperts can speculate as to what is going on ...

plus .. please expand on this thought:

I'd like to do whatever I can to save these trees. They have been long neglected.

trees basically take care of themselves... what is making you think you need to help them ... if there are structural problems... perhaps a few other pix will help ...

good luck

ken

do they have leaves that are smaller than typical American Elm? Possible that they are Siberian elms.

Last fall when I first went to the house ALL of the trees needed much care. They hadn't been pruned in decades, several were completely dead. The fruit trees were pathetic with much bark stripped off.

The elms had much dead wood and needed pruning, but the leaves themselves were eaten away like little caterpillars had munched the tender parts between the veins. The only healthy, large leaves were way up on the tree, which of course I could not reach even with a tall ladder. The trees are not vase-shaped like Valley Forge elms.

I would like to be proactive in spraying for whatever is eating the leaves up. I thought at first it was Japanese Beetles, but now I doubt that. It seems that Japanese Beetles have probably not even reached the Rockies yet.

As soon as the trees leaf out I'll take some photos.

Any idea what I should spray for and when?

Thanks so much!

If you could take photos of the bark of the trees, both a closeup and one showing some of the branching that could help narrow it down quite a bit. Also, if you could get photos of a twig with the buds, especially closeups of the buds, that could possibly lead to a positive ID even without leaves.

That sounds like elm leaf beetle, who love American elm. Denver has a program for it, if they are in the ROW you are in luck. Contact me offline and I'll put you in touch with who you need to call.

BTW, the likely choice is Siberian elm or American elm if the bark does not look like Chinese.

Dan

If a distinctive species like Siberian elm may be possible to tell by leaves or branching habit. Otherwise, species of elms generally similar to one another are distinguished using their winged fruits as well as their leaves etc. As with willows it may be necessary to study the buds, flowers and fruits of a particular specimen during the winter and spring when these are present, and then return later in summer to look at the fully formed leaves. In addition to the similarity of some species to one another rather often making precise identification of elms peculiarly difficult a number of hybrids between them have been planted in the past.

A local tree expert suspects a large-leaved, spreading coarse form of "American elm" accounting for at least a few large surviving examples out here may actually be hybrids with red elm.