Have you ever thought what makes a place special for you? I suspect for readers of this blog the answers will be filled with the details of nature, the species that bring a landscape to life, the bird song that conjures a magical spring day, a profusion of wild flowers and, very often, the trees that add form and structure to the view.
Our woods and forests, every copse and spinney frame so much of our world and strike a chord with us that fuelled last years outpouring of protest at Government plans for the future of England’s forests.
Over the last four decades our woodlands have been assaulted – the devastating impact of Dutch Elm disease crept slowly across our landscape, billowing elms first showed a patch of yellowing leaves, an unseasonal branch of autumn, that was the prelude to the tree’s demise. The end often came quickly, a bright cross of paint on a venerable trunk and then the grind of chainsaws.
I'm re-reading Gerald Wilkinson's Epitaph for the Elm published in 1978 - the story of the last time an introduced non-native fungus devasted our woodlands
But the elms persisted – now hiding in hedgerows growing happily until big enough to have the door opened to the fungus by a beetle that etches its chambers under the bark.
Twenty five years ago the Great Storm flattened millions of trees across the south and east. Even now the scars are still visible, humps and bumps showing where the upended root plates of fallen trees where ripped out of the ground.
The violent wind reshaped the landscape – but re-growth and replanting softened the smashed woods – though much damage was caused in the aftermath through clearance. I know of ghosts of woods where a few lingering bluebells trace a memory of a lost feature of the landscape.
The lessons of the past are relevant once again as we face an uncertain future dominated by ash dieback, a fungal disease introduced by trade and lax bio-security to Europe and now stalking our ash woods. And this time the disease hits trees at all stages of their growth – no reprieve for the young shoots, meaning a different and potentially more ecologically damaging impact than the loss of elms.
The nation is taking stock – as Martin Harper’s latest blog on this serious issue makes clear. Its too early to jump to conclusions, one worrying sign of this is a too easy acceptance that the fungal spores have arrived on the wind – a slack analysis that risks making it harder to focus on routes of transmission that are controllable by better regulation and bio-security. This may just be a feature creeping into media coverage – and it will be crucial to await the outcome of today’s summit meeting hosted by DEFRA.
Whatever the short term recommendations are on action for our ash trees - there is a broader issue of ensuring that the UK ups its game to ensure that invasive non native organisms like the ash die-back fungus Chalara fraxinea, are taken seriously and tackled effectively.
More later
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