Blog - ash dieback

Can the UK keep out tree diseases? - a view from Professor Nicola Spence

Can the UK keep out tree diseases? – a view from Professor Nicola Spence

by Angus, 16 April, 2019, 1 comments

Recently, I met up with Nicola Spence, the UK's Chief Plant Health Officer: her observations took me on a hair-raising tour of the battlements that keep British trees safe from foreign invaders. To give an idea of the importance of plant health she pointed out that in the 1960s and 1970s Dutch Elm Disease from Europe killed between 10 and 20 million trees; the recent Ash Dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus), which also came from continental Europe, is in the process of wiping out about 80% of the UK's ash trees. Consequently her department is very vigilant to stop any further invasions of pathogens or insects that could attack our trees. For example Defra and the Forestry Commission have successfully dealt with localised outbreaks of Sweet chestnut blight and in Kent there was a recent infestation of trees by the Asian Longhorn Beetle which meant cutting down and incinerating all trees within a 100 metre radius. Read more...

The new 'must-read' tree book : "The Ash Tree" by Oliver Rackham

The new ‘must-read’ tree book : “The Ash Tree” by Oliver Rackham

by Angus, 5 November, 2014, 1 comments

When I last saw Oliver Rackham I was infected by his curiosity. Someone suggested, as we walked though a woodland, that one spot might have been historically used for making charcoal so Dr Rackham dived into the undergrowth armed only with a set of keys and dug into the soil and he soon emerged triumphant with some old charred remains, proving definitively that this location had in fact been used for charcoal making. This sort of curiosity and dogged ferreting for facts runs through his new book on the ash tree. He considers what threats the ash tree faces, but he also uses the book as a platform for a wider diagnosis of the state of British woodlands. Read more...

ash tree and bud

Observing your trees – a problem with ash

by Prof Julian Evans, 30 November, 2007, 15 comments

Sherlock Holmes’ common criticism of his friend Dr Watson was: “You see but do not observe”. All of us are guilty. But once our attention has been drawn to a subject, we start seeing ‘everywhere’ what had before passed unremarked upon. And this is what I want to do with Ash trees. In May I began noticing that two Ash trees visible from the study window were behaving very differently. They were next to each other and both about 60 feet high. One flushed and developed normally, and was still in full leaf in mid-October, the other ‘struggled’ into leaf with a few leaves eaten, a few not appearing on shoots until August, and many shoots never flushing at all. Throughout the summer the crown was transparent with just a few, scattered leaves hanging on. Read more...

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