sweet chestnut trees dying

[Stephen1]

Or.... another possible culprit, Chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica). Just to add to the confusion, the symptoms do look a bit like squirrel damage....

Certainly chestnut blight is lurking just across the channel - and could at any time become the next big problem - We need the government to take steps about this now before a problem arises. It has been found in the uk this year - but it looks like control measures have been successful. At least if chestnut blight does arrive there is a method of biological control that can reduce the severity of its impact.

The pictures posted by Woodmonkey do not indicate Chestnut blight as a likely cause. To the experienced eye the symptoms do Not look like squirrel damage. In the picture posted by OCP the infected area has been extended with a sharp cutting tool (look at the top of the damage area - you can clearly see where the healthy outer bark has been cut away) to demonstrate the change in colour of the sap wood at the front of the spreading infection. This isn't how Chestnut blight lesions look naturally - this has been modified to demonstrate an aid to recognition.

[Emma S]

I have a friend who has been a woodsman for 25 odd years down here in E Sussex, and he was telling me that there is something attacking sweet chestnut, and he thinks that the coppices of it down in this part of the UK will all be gone in 10 years. I will have a word with him and see if he can give me some more details

[docsquid]

Some links to information on the FC page

Sweet Chestnut Blight - http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8s5qbf
Send photos and description to either of these two
Fera Plant Health & Seeds Inspectorate
Tel.: 01904 465625
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.defra.gov.uk/fera/plants/plantHealth;

The Forestry Commission Plant Health Service
Tel: 0131 314 6414
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pestsanddiseases;

And Phytophthora ramorum in England http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-7XVEWH -
Contact details
f you suspect your woodland might be infected or you have noticed suspicious symptoms, please report it without delay to the Forestry Commission’s Bristol office, tel: 0117 3721070; email: [email protected] . The details you will be asked for will include:

name and address;
contact telephone and email;
location of the woodland concerned (grid reference, postcode or nearest town);
approximate area and age of the Japanese larch;
approximate area of rhododendron (if present);
whether the rhododendron (if present) is showing symptoms;
whether there is sweet chestnut present; and
the approximate date when symptoms were first noticed;

I'd be inclined to pick up the phone and speak to the plant health folks - they can tell you whether you are worrying unneccesarily, and can often exclude serious things by looking at a good quality photo. Better that than have it spread...

[splodger]

in an earlier post - i referred to insect damage being the main cause of some of our sweet chestnuts dying - as the trees we have lost over the last few years have all had the same pattern of holes appear on the bark - and within a year, these trees have died

anyway - i have found another tree with these marks - so thought i would post a pic of them - these holes are not on a sweet chestnut but on a wych elm

[splodger]

it's defo not a bird - the holes are too small and too low and they do look knawed close up

my guess is a type of wasp - my dad thinks beetle

[Steve Medlock]

I have a friend who has been a woodsman for 25 odd years down here in E Sussex, and he was telling me that there is something attacking sweet chestnut, and he thinks that the coppices of it down in this part of the UK will all be gone in 10 years. I will have a word with him and see if he can give me some more details

I certainly have a big problem with Sweet Chestnut in E Sussex, but the symptoms bear no resemblence to this particular problem. I did have a chap from Defra down who did an indicator test but it was inconclusive. When the dead trunks are cut back, the stool does regenerate but its too early to tell if they will just die back again.

Steve.