Ash Dieback - the other pandemic

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 wintertree 29 May 2021

Last autumn, ash dieback seemed to arrive in our area in force - many of the trees shed most of their leaves on a few windy days a month or so early, when the leaves were still green.  A lot of the leaves left a fibrous network of their veins behind.  I had been holding out hope this was more to do with the very dry spring than with dieback.

The ash trees are always some of the last to come in to leaf, along with the oak.  This year it looks pretty bad for the ash trees...

  • About 1/3rd have buds unfurling on most branches
  • About 1/3rd have mostly dead branches (dry, rigid/brittle not flexible/strong) with buds only forming on short stubs from the main trunk and core branches
  • About 1/3rd seem completely lifeless, as in the photo below I took last night.

The large number of totally leafless trees really stands out.  Over the winter I started to really look at the trees out and about, and this is going to be a massive change for the countryside and for the roadside.  It's going to be a bumper year for tree surgeons keeping the roads and railways safe.  Also something of an existential threat to the Morgan Motor Company; I don't know how many other niche businesses rely on a decent supply of ash timber? 

60 years ago our area was much more bare of trees; old photos show many of the ash trees to be post-war, a reminder that things change and that the many gaps can be filled in, but not within my lifetime.

Post edited at 09:15

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 Wimlands 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

it can be pretty depressing... some areas down here in Sussex that look like mausoleums. Something must be benefiting though...woodpeckers?

 Lankyman 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

A note of optimism, the youngish ashes behind me seem to be born again after looking dead and gone last summer. So far, the leaves seem to be sprouting as usual. Time will tell.

 Bob Kemp 29 May 2021
In reply to Lankyman:

I hope you’re right but, according to the Woodland Trust, repeated infections tend to weaken and kill the trees eventually.

(Their website has a good (if rather depressing) page on ash dieback-

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/tree-pests-and-di... )

 Toerag 29 May 2021
In reply to Bob Kemp:

Possibly similar to Dutch Elm disease - the suckers keep coming back but never make it to mature trees.

The current thought on Ash dieback is to keep the trees until they become dangerous. Pre-emptively chopping them all down means the odd one resistant to the disease will be lost.

Post edited at 10:53
 AllanMac 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Depressingly, there is nothing that can be done about ash dieback, except to fell badly infected trees and wait upwards of 50 years for disease resistant trees to establish a foothold. The UK would probably have been vulnerable to ash dieback anyway, but the spread was greatly accelerated by tree imports from other infected countries prior to 2012.

In the meantime, other tree species with ash-like traits can help fill the spaces left by the felling of dead or dying trees, which as near as possible replicate woodland ecosystems in which ash formed a big part. These trees can help conserve functional characteristics in ecosystems affected by the loss of ash.

In vulnerable regions in the UK, trees like Poplar can fill vacant gaps relatively quickly and can act as a nurse species for slower growing Alder, Field Maple, Sessile Oak, Small Leaved Lime etc, which are less vulnerable to known diseases.

Research article from the British Ecological Society on this subject:

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.1325...

OP wintertree 29 May 2021
In reply to AllanMac:

Great link, thanks.  It looks like we’re going to loose three big ash trees, and that’s a great starting point for what to replace them with.

We visited Low Burnhall today, about 150 acres of woodland planted around 12 years ago.  Almost all the ash saplings were suffering as in the photo below.

This doesn’t seem as totally lethal (al trees) or as fast (to one tree) as Dutch elm disease. So hopefully a few will still be standing and the next generation can come through it.


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 jimtitt 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I had the firewood rights to a wood across the road which was mixed fir and naturally seeded ash and at that time it was a notifiable disease, we were then the most westerly affected forest in Germany so got studied by the forestry guys. At first it was one or two and I cut them out  as advised by the university, every year the disease quadrupled and even the trees which may have fought it off eventually succumbed. After five or so years the next problem appeared in that the die-back appeared to weaken the trees resistance as butt-rot became endemic so they fell over even though the die-back virus could only be detected in the lab.

I pulled out 350 trees and not one is left, kept me warm though!

 Alkis 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I was walking in the Chilterns a couple of months ago and it certain areas were a disaster zone and they are only going to get worse!

 MG 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Elms have gone, ashes will be in 5 years, oaks, larch, sweet chestnut, alder and others under threat. It's not good.

 timjones 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

It is starting to look worrying.

It appears that I am likely to lose most of the ash wood that I planted when I should have been revising for my A-levels many years ago. I've always been proud to say that it is a more satisfying legacy than a few exam certificates so it will be heartbreaking to lose it.

 toad 29 May 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I think this spring has been the first one where I have properly noticed the ash trees I knew ( intellectually) were dying were, well, dying. Its heartbreaking 

 Toerag 01 Jun 2021
In reply to jimtitt:

What have they been replaced with, or is it not the time to re-plant yet?

 Toerag 01 Jun 2021
In reply to MG:

> Elms have gone, ashes will be in 5 years, oaks, larch, sweet chestnut, alder and others under threat. It's not good.

We got badly hit by Dutch elm in the 80s as it formed the majority of our tree cover - the 'Cornish/Southampton/Jersey elm' originated in Guernsey. The resulting exposure resulted in other trees being flattened by the 'hurricane' of '87. However, there is now more cover than at that time, and of a more diverse range of species.  Trees we planted around the perimeter of our carpark when I was in scouts now have trunks thicker than my torso and are 10m tall, it doesn't take that long to recover.  One big potential problem with planting trees is climate change - what is suitable now may not be in 20/50 70 years' time. Germany's vast pine forests will almost certainly change due to this, especially in the alps where they're entirely artificial, planted for commercial reasons.

 jimtitt 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Toerag:

> What have they been replaced with, or is it not the time to re-plant yet?

Still cutting out the fir trees so it'll be a while, difficult ground as it's waterlogged sand and floods every few years. Might even be left for nature to decide, it's a worthless bit of ground (and there are beavers that kill anything as well).

 Toccata 01 Jun 2021
In reply to wintertree:

About 50% of the big trees around us are ash and have been dying for about 4 years. I am surprised there's not more of a drive to replant them with something else. The White Peak will look a bit bare without ash.

 Toerag 01 Jun 2021
In reply to Toccata:

>The White Peak will look a bit bare without ash.

They love limey soil. The one I planted in scouts has done really well, I think due to the concrete foundation slab remains of the Nissen hut that was our scout hut until the 70's, and lime mortar from the adjacent Victorian wall.  Our soil is naturally acidic here (granite / gneiss rock) and we don't have huge amounts of Ash.

 Billhook 01 Jun 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I'm not too sure we need to much planting to replace many trees, especially in unmanaged woodland.  Dead standing trees often have a huge benefit to wildlife and I recall Oliver Rackham stating that the clear up after that famous hurricane in the 1980s did more damage to the environment than the hurricane did.

Like some here, I remember the start of Dutch Elm Disease and the huge gaps in our local woodlands as a consequence.  Non of these gaps were planted up and you wouldn't notice anything unusual now as natural regeneration has filled the gaps.

Creating "fire breaks", might work for fires, but I can't see it working for trees.


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