Chinese Elm shoots are taking over! What is best way to deal with them without hurting the tree

[310mjh]

I removed my lawn and intend to replace it with drought tolerant plants. In the process of removing the lawn, my landscaper rototilled the yard. Maybe a month later, chinese elm tree sprouts started appearing everywhere. Never really noticed them before removing the lawn.
I pulled them out, and many were attached to very short pieces of roots that have been cut through by the rototiller. Some spring from larger roots that seem like they may still be attached to the tree. I don't want to harm my beautiful chinese elm tree, but want to find a good way to keep these sprouts at bay since they will be more difficult to deal with after I plant the new landscaping. I have a couple months before I plant. Any advise?

 

[Raintree]

I had to laugh, you don't want anything to harm your beautiful Chinese elm, yet you let the landscaper rototill the root zone. LOL
As far as I know there is no easy fix and you are in for a long maintenance schedule of continuous root sucker pruning.