by oldclaypaws » Mon Feb 24, 2014 11:26 am
From last years rather hysterical news headlines, you'd think that every ash tree is dying and you musn't walk within 5 miles of one or you risk certain death. The truth is rather less dramatic.
Although the disease is now reported across most regions, its still mainly been restricted to new sites where imported ash trees were recently planted. It has spread to older native woods in places, but the number of sites is still comparatively small compared to the frequency of ash trees. Spread is slow and insidious, probably unpreventable, but it might take decades before the majority of ash trees are threatened. Vigilance is required, but there's no need for panic. Young trees are the most affected, veteran Ash trees of 40 years+ old tend to survive and some may hold the key to resistant strains.
You'd probably find it difficult to buy a wood without any Ash, its one of our most successful and widespread trees. Most older woods will have a mix of native trees where Ash will only form a minority of the total cover. It is a beautiful, graceful and useful tree, so we will all be upset if losing it, but so far no SWOG members have reported being affected.
I'd probably think twice before buying a wood that is dominated by Ash, but few such woods will exist, unless they were recently planted for fuel. If you did find one with a fair bit of Ash, its a good bargaining point to talk the price down and you could start a long term 'bet hedging' agenda of thinning the Ash and planting other natives to increase the species mix. Yes, currently an infected wood will mean you'd have to destroy it on site at your own cost, but you'd be unlucky and its far from certain in the next few years that you'd be hit. Most of us fell our own smaller trees, older Ash trees might be left to see if they can pull through, that would be for discussion with the FC if unfortunate to be infected.
If you rejected any wood with a potential to catch disease, you'd have to exclude woods containing Larch, Oak, Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut, Ash, Elm, Plane- basically all woods.
There any many threats facing woods, but its part of nature. If one species takes a knock, others fill the gaps. Theres already talk of using the likes of Sycamore, Maples, and other more resistant Ash species as a long term replacement for Common Ash. Its a reprieve for Sycamore, which only a few years ago was considered non-native and invasive by some, now its seen as a possible 'saviour' or alternative to Ash. The balance changes.
Don't be scared of Ash, it'll be around for a good while yet, but a well mixed wood will always be less prone to particular forthcoming challenges. Its for that reason we're thinning our dominant species and replanting a bigger mix, and its not Ash !! - And we still have plenty of Elm, that wasn't wiped out either.
