Sudden oak death now threatens more of Britain's trees

barbersfort

Disturbing story highlighting new tree disease and danger of exotic plant species to British Isles:

http://gu.com/p/2mev8

Birdnuts

There was a similiar issue with a disease that was brought in on Turkey oaks - this looks more serious though:(

The_Conductor

Bugger- so its hopped to Larch?
We use Larch widely in mixtures (and some pure plots too) here......

5live

Wow. The joys of globalisation,eh?

JupiterKid

I sincerely hope it won't be like a re-run of the Dutch Elm disease outbreak of the 1970s and 1980s. That disease wiped out almost all the elm trees in Ireland and the UK.:(

The_Conductor

JupiterKid wrote: »

I sincerely hope it won't be like a re-run of the Dutch Elm disease outbreak of the 1970s and 1980s. That disease wiped out almost all the elm trees in Ireland and the UK.:(

Its another concern certainly- however the honey fungus (or butt rot) (Armillariella mellea) is most probably of more concern, is present, and is being actively controlled. Its a pathogenic fungus which rots the roots of standing trees. White rot in forestry (particularly in Sitka Spruce) (Heterobasidion annosum) has the potential to be the most commercially damaging pathogen- and is also being actively monitored by two Irish teams.

We are never going to be free from air borne pathogens- regardless of what we do (totally ignoring dutch elm disease and various other species specific pathogens- remember fire blight back in the 80s- which wiped out a lot of nursery stock?)

In an Irish context- we cannot forget Phytophthora Infestans- the potato blight of the 1840s, which killed off such a large swathe of our population, and arguably initiated the large scale immigration of the Irish abroad as never before.

The fungus that causes sudden oak death is a first cousin of potato blight, Phytophthora ramorus- and is equally as communicable (and loves the Irish climate).

People don't appreciate how much of an ongoing battle it is, to try to keep a wide and varied pathogenic threat at bay....... Ireland and the UK have long used their island statuses as a measure to try to control continental diseases- but all this tends to do is introduce a delay on their introduction here- and an ever shortening delay at that. It may have taken 4-5 years for Dutch elm disease to become established here- were a similar disease to mutate on the continent, it would be most surprising if it took more than a few weeks to make its presence felt here. Even a total isolation policy will fail (look at what happened with the Foot and Mouth precautions)- all we can do is be as vigilant as possible ourselves, and hope that our neighbours exercise similar due diligence and concern whenever they see anything out of the ordinary.

5live

Hi shane. Well off topic but.... On foot and mouth, the government was warned 3 times pre the outbreak of the illegal import of sheep from Scotland to NI and to sheep factories here and did nothing as it was it the interests of factories to source chear supplies of stock. Hence, the ensueing debacle. I dont think the forestry disease threat is going to be caused by the same level of idiocy. Well, maybe a smaller level:o. A stitch in time saves nine but our rulers have an aversion to ANY prevention measures. How are they going to contain the disease to areas where it is in when, for the most part, they cannot diagnose the presence of the disease until it begins spreading again(if i have understood the epidemeology correctly)EDIT Sorry about the rant. Bad day