I suspected as much

"Dutch elm claimed 10,000 metro-area elms last year, in the worst surge of the disease since the late 1970s." from this article in the Star Tribune today.

Unfortunately, part of the blame for this is complacency and I can understand why -- it almost seemed like the orange rings were a thing of the past in the 90s.

A very large elm was removed from the property next door to us last summer, but I don't remember seeing the orange band, so I think it was simply because the machine shop no longer wanted the tree there. It's good for our garden, but bad for our air conditioner.

I have mixed feelings about the possibility of losing the one in the front of our yard. It's a beautiful tree, but I already have a heavy shade tree a mere 8 feet from it so my front yard exists in arbor-induced night.