Ash tree disease...

[Archie_tect]

So am I... when it comes down there'll be a mighty thump.

 

[GaryA]

Ash trees are very elegent and beautiful...they are the trees whoose leaves come out latest of all.... this year it was early june for some trees. Ive had some of my favourite moments under shady ash trees in summer. I've known 4 of them in a line near High Shincliffe- at the start of strawberry lane- for donkeys years...if I stay still long enough, I can hear them whispering timeless things to each other.

 

[Archie_tect]

Ash trees have been around a lot longer than we have and will be around long after we have gone. On that time scale, they will be just fine.

If they don't get infected. remember Elm trees?

 

[RaRa]

I might have missed something here but why are they burning all the affected trees - could they not cut them down and harvest the wood? Burning seems such a waste.

 

[Davidc]

I might have missed something here but why are they burning all the affected trees - could they not cut them down and harvest the wood? Burning seems such a waste.

It's the only way to destroy the spores of the fungus. It's done if possible on site to minimise the chance of spreading the disease.

Same applies to the disease affecting oaks, and to elms

 

[Night Train]

Ash is a very useful timber. Morgan cars are now having to consider using an alternative timber for their car frames, I know of at least one established furniture maker who's whole business is converting Ask trees to salable and exportable high end products.

I don't much care for the look of the tree but I would hate to see the loss of the timber as a commercial product material source.

Maybe I should get a good stock of timber before the price goes too high.

 

[Davidc]

If they don't get infected. remember Elm trees?

They'll still survive long term. The probability of all trees being killed is very low and the rest is evolution in action. From what I've read elms are evolving now, with trees that seed young, before the disease can affect them, being selected for, as are trees in which the bark splits at a greater age than it used to, leading to later infection.

What I haven't seen are any research results reported showing why we have so many diseases of trees at present. What I said in my earlier post is right for a single species but if we lose a load of species all at once it could be more damaging.


[QUOTE 2135847, member: 259"]It gets worse! Scots pine could be next casualty of a 'tidal wave' of tree diseases[/quote]
Britain's only native conifer.

If disease doesn't get it I believe it is vulnerable to global warming.

Sad

Keep on like this and tree hugging will be no more than a distant memory.

 

[Night Train]

Keep on like this and tree hugging will be no more than a distant memory.

What's a tree?

 

[Archie_tect]

What's a tree?

The things the government asked us to plant in '73, then once more in '74.

 

[Archie_tect]

Scot's Pines are my favourite... the red-squirrelly trees!

 

[dellzeqq]

It's the only way to destroy the spores of the fungus. It's done if possible on site to minimise the chance of spreading the disease.

Same applies to the disease affecting oaks, and to elms

and this is the problem. The Danes harvested their because they knew the game was up. In this country we're going to burn a perfectly good resource.

 

[Archie_tect]

That's what I find so confusing about burning... the spores will be released in their millions on site by the act of handling the trees ready for burning. The fire will take an age to get up to the temperature required to kill the spores, meanwhile the powerful updraught caused by the fire will carry the spores hundreds of metres into the atmosphere where they can distribute far more effectively than at ground level. So exactly how does wasteful burning resolve the problem rather than felling commercially viable wood?

DEFRA showed the same stupidity killing and burning farm stock during the foot and mouth 'epidemic' instead of wholesale inoculation to prevent rather than contain foot and mouth [calves inoculated after birth are protected for life]... same with TB inoculation rather than the badger cull. What's this fetish for burning everything?

 

[MattHB]

Can someone mail me some spores?

I've been trying for too long to get the neighbours to realise that the 6 'small' suckers coming up between our houses aren't going to be 'a nice screen' when they reach 80feet and start destabilising our drains and walls.

 

[Archie_tect]

Can someone mail me some spores?

I've been trying for too long to get the neighbours to realise that the 6 'small' suckers coming up between our houses aren't going to be 'a nice screen' when they reach 80feet and start destabilising our drains and walls.

Those 6 small suckers will already have a hold into the ground which no amount of culling will prevent... the only option is dig down and remove the tap roots before it's too late. Face them with reality asap.

 

[MattHB]

Those 6 small suckers will already have a hold into the ground which no amount of culling will prevent... the only option is dig down and remove the tap roots before it's too late. Face them with reality asap.

We've been trying without success