ASH DIEBACK: As the Government holds an emergency summit today to tackle the arrival and spread of ash dieback in the UK, we have published a three point plan to make clear its ongoing commitment to the issue of tree disease as a whole.
Our Chief Executive, Sue Holden said:
“We are committed to tackling the growing threat of all tree pests and diseases in the UK and, by publishing this plan, we will continue to lead the fight for the future of our trees and woods. We will work collaboratively with specialists in the sector as well as involving the public in our mission.
“More specifically, by investing in UK tree nurseries, we aim to stamp out any risk of importing further disease. We will also work closely with community and voluntary tree nurseries to the same end.
“The Woodland Trust has been working to raise awareness of these issues for a number of years and has drawn attention to the need to enforce stricter measures to stop the import and spread of tree disease. Until a tragedy such as ash dieback becomes a reality, it is difficult to impress upon people the importance of protecting the UK’s trees and the need to enforce stricter controls to prevent new pests and diseases entering the country.
“We also will fight to ensure that greater priority is given to trees and woods by Government. The situation regarding ash dieback is a sad reflection of the degree of priority that has been given to the protection and safeguarding of our natural woodland resources and of the environment as a whole. This must be immediately addressed.”
The Woodland Trust’s three point plan
1. Bringing scientists and the public together to monitor and protect the UK’s trees and woods
Together with the Forestry Commission, FERA and the National Trust, we have submitted a bid for funding to the EU LIFE fund (total value £2.5m) for a five-year project to enable tree health scientists to greatly extend their reach and knowledge of the health of the UK’s trees. By enlisting and supporting members of the public to become citizen scientists, we will be able to monitor and report on the health of trees across the UK, providing a comprehensive early warning system for tree pests and diseases.
We will not know the outcome of this bid until September 2013, and success is not guaranteed. Given the urgency of the current tree health crisis we can’t wait for the EU bidding process to run its slow course. We want to close the one million pound funding gap and implement this project now.
2. Growing our own
Our bold vision of doubling native woodland cover involves us buying hundreds of thousands of trees every year to plant on our own estate or to give or sell to others. Recent events have shown that we cannot have confidence in current supply chain processes. We intend to ensure that we can have 100% confidence that we plant only trees that are truly UK grown and are disease free. We will invest in UK tree nurseries, working closely with them over a long period of time to produce the trees we need, trees in which we can have 100% confidence. In parallel we will support, and/or invest in community and local tree nurseries to help to ensure that new tree planting is truly rooted in the community.
3. Keeping woodland alive
We will set up one or more events to bring together specialists from the UK, Europe and the wider world to share knowledge, and to help us to safeguard the conservation benefits of UK trees and woods in the face of an unprecedented wave of pests and diseases.
