A scheme to return the once familiar Elm tree to the Leicestershire countryside is being expanded by offering saplings to schools.

More 80,000 Elms were dotted around the county until the 1980s, when Dutch Elm Disease all but wiped them off the landscape.

Now however, forestry experts at Leicestershire County Council are looking to re-introduce the species with saplings that have been grown to be resistant to the fatal tree blight.

A trial project was launched in February with the planting of a dozen young Elms at Market Bosworth Country Park.

But since then over the summer a further 40 have been put into other parks at Beacon Hill, near Loughborough, Watermead near Birstall and Snibston near Coalville.

They have so far remained healthy prompting the council to ask schools to apply to have their very own Elm in their playground.

So far 40 school applications have been received for the saplings, which cost the county council £120 each.

County Hall forestry manager Nick Fell said: "The idea was to see how the saplings we have planted fared before looking to widen the project.

"The great news is that they are all fine so far with no traces of disease.

"That means now we can go ahead with the schools. I've got a stack of 40 applications on my desk which I have to work through to see which sites are appropriate and where the trees might thrive.

"When we've picked the schools we will plant the trees and work with the pupils to keep an eye on them and try to keep them disease free.

"Of course we will never be able to get back to the numbers of Elms before the disease caused such devastation but it is a project that has captured people's imaginations and we are keen to widen it out."

The saplings being used are bought from a tree nursery in Essex where owner Paul King has been developing a strain of the tree he thinks will resist the Dutch Elm Disease fungus.

He said: "Back in the 80s I felled a lot of Elm trees that had become infected but we did notice that while many trees were dying some seemed to escape.

"We took cuttings and have been using them to develop 2,000 saplings.

"We don't know they are immune to the disease, but they are highly resistant. We think that is because the smooth leaves are not attractive as food to the bark beetle that carries the fungus that attacks the trees."

David Parsons, leader of the county council, said: "We are keen to help English Elms, which were once such an integral part of the Leicestershire landscape, thrive in our county once again.

"This scheme will not only enable children to help re-introduce and nurture the trees under the guidance of our staff, but it will also help teach them about their local natural environment.

"Hopefully, as a result of this pioneering scheme, English Elms will once again become a prevalent part of the Leicestershire countryside and other areas will follow our example."

For more information on the Elm scheme visit:

www.leics.gov.uk