July 13, 2013
A seven-acre section of woodland near Bickleigh belonging to farmer John Greenslade has been decimated by the disease, and a major programme to uproot and destroy affected trees is under way.
July 5, 2013
Thousands of mature, native ash trees are being dug up and burned after the devastating disease ash dieback was confirmed in Devon.
About 2,000 trees at Byway Farm near Tiverton are affected, according to the Forestry Commission.
This is the first confirmed case of the disease in mature, native trees in the region – another nine cases have been confirmed in young trees that have been recently planted at sites across Devon and Cornwall, including two sites on Dartmoor National Park, according to Forestry Commission figures.
Ben Jones, of the commission’s England plant protection team, said: “It appears that the affected trees had the disease when they were planted in 1996-97. It is concerning and we are continuing our investigations into how the spread had taken place and how far it has spread.”
May 15, 2013
Ash dieback has been found in mature trees for the first time in Wales.
The infected trees were discovered in Ferryside, Carmarthenshire, by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) staff last week.
Until now the Chalara dieback in Wales had been confined to newly planted sites in trees from nurseries known to hold infected stock.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22516757
April 29, 2013
More than 20,000 trees may have to be destroyed at Northern Ireland’s only Diamond Jubilee Wood.
They are ash trees planted only last year near Whitehead to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22047873
April 24, 2013
Rogue traders are targeting householders in Warwickshire in a scam where crooks are trying to cash in on a tree-killing disease.
Simon Cripwell, spokesman for Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards team, said: “Across the region there have been reports of unscrupulous tree surgeons using the recent national publicity given about ash dieback to misinform tree owners in order to carry out unnecessary work.
“Such work has often led to a cost to the owner and the unnecessary felling of trees. Any householder or landowner who is advised that he or she has a tree that is diseased or dangerous should seek a second opinion if they do not have the expertise themselves.
March 10, 2013
Ancient woodlands covering an area larger than 12,700 football pitches are threatened with destruction to make way for new building developments and the controversial high-speed rail link.
Analysis by the Woodland Trust has revealed that at least 350 woods, which have all been a feature of the landscape for more than 400 years, could be lost or permanently damaged under plans to build housing, roads, quarries and the £33 billion rail route.
The scale of the threat, which the group says is the greatest in the 15 years since it began recording ancient woodlands at risk,
March 9, 2013
Forestry officials have confirmed the Chalara fraxinea fungus, which causes ash trees to gradually wither and die, has been found at three new sites in young trees in Wales.
The cases are the first to be identified since the start of the winter, as the symptoms of the disease, which threatens to devastate Britain’s 80 million ash trees, become hard to spot in trees once they lose their leaves.
The number of cases to be found in Britain stands at 386 since it was first discovered last February, with 170 of these in mature established woodland.
All the trees at the three sites, which had been supplied by a nursery previously found to be infected with the fungus, were destroyed. Testing has suggested around 10 per cent of ash tree sites are infected.
Scientists have also found that infected trees were being imported into Britain from elsewhere in Europe as early as 2008 – far earlier than believed previously.
“In the case of Chalara, it’s very important to make sure you don’t inadvertently move ash leaves, living or dead, around the countryside.”
March 8, 2013
“One of the things the Forestry Commission is doing is setting up an area a network of ash plantations where they will be trialling different types of ash genes to see which ones are going to be more resistant. And, what they do know from the work they’ve done in Europe, is that this resistancy is hereditary. So it does seem to give a reasonable clue that it should be possible to encourage natural resistance varieties within native population of ash.”
Mr Roughton said: “When we got the request from the Forestry Commission that they were looking for trial areas we responded immediately to offer part of this field because we see it as such an important opportunity to kick-start the ash fight-back.
“From our point of view it’s a great site because we know there’s lots of ash dieback there and that’s the best testing ground for any young ash.”
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_pioneering_attempt_to_find_ash_dieback_resistant_trees_1_1967912
December 29, 2012
Nurseries infected with the deadly fungus set to wipe out Britain’s 80m ash trees have been removed from the official map of the outbreak the Guardian can reveal, after nursery owners complained that being identified might hurt their business.
Officials said permitting anonymity encourages nursery owners to come forward and report infections, but critics say concealing the identity of infected nurseries means the public and scientists trying to fight the epidemic do not have the full facts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/23/ash-dieback-infected-nurseries-map
December 29, 2012
Two trade bodies, the Horticultural Trades Association and the Confederation of Forest Industries, warned the Commission of the potential threat of fungal disease in 2009.
But despite this 70,400 trees were brought in from abroad and now ash dieback- or chalara fraxinea – is now threatening to wipe out 80 million trees in Britain.
The infected Forestry Commission sites include Thetford Forest, in Norfolk, one of the biggest lowland forests in England with more than 19,000 hectares of woodland.
Also affected are Rendlesham Wood, a 1,500 hectare forest in Suffolk; Theberton Wood, a 25 hectare patch of woodland in Suffolk; Eggringe Wood, which forms part of a stretch of woodland on the Kent Downs covering 1,598 hectares; and the 400 hectare Elham Park Wood in east Kent.
The Forestry Commission also had to destroy 50,000 saplings at Dalbeatie Forest in Dumfries and Galloway after they were found to be infected.
It is understood the 70,000 imported ash trees represented 4.2 per cent of the total planted.
Ash Dieback MONITOR .. 