Ash Trees are the second most common tree in the United Kingdom, but the disease is threatening to wipe out up to 80% of them. There are treats for millions of ash trees from the fungal disease. It could damage the UK’s tree planting scheme to meet its carbon Net Zero target by 2050.
This predominantly ash woodland and hack fall, located in North Yorkshire is set to be radically transformed by a disease that could kill 80% of the ash trees. Ash drybag is a disease that originated in Asia, but it is said to have a profound effect on trees in the United Kingdom.
According to the Woodland Trust, 80% of ash trees across the UK are predicted to be affected by ash dry back at a cost of billions for the management of the crisis. The effects will be staggering, it will change the landscape forever, and threaten many species which rely on Ash.
So I started back as a fungal disease that actually originated in Asia. And it’s traveled all the way across Europe and into the UK through global trade, and it’s affecting a significant number of our ash trees, there are about 126 million ash trees across the UK, and the diseases are expected to infect about 80% of those.
Experts warn that there will be a knock-on effect on all of the diverse life dependent on those trees. Not many know but this is usually called an extinction cascade effect.
Trees infected with ash dieback might show symptoms such as a gray-brown bark, dieback of the shoots, leaves shedding early in the season, and new growth sprouting law down the trunk in stressed trees.
Most of the ash, I’ve got some infection here, and some severe ones that have actually completely killed the trees, it seems to be more apparent in the lower slopes where it gets a slightly damp climate. So the sort of fungal activity is generally higher in some of the damp valleys. And that’s why we’ve seen such a lot of trees die off in this lower area.
The expert has found evidence of ash drying back on the tiny saplings, which could have become the next generation of ash trees and had fallen, but for now, the future looks pretty much uncertain.
At first sight, it is not obvious that the saplings are diseased. But after examining the brownish-gray color of the branches, it is a clear sign 60% of the trees and hack fall are ash. So it’s not hard to imagine the effects the disease will have on the woodland here. Ash Trees infected with ash drybags are at much greater risk of falling over.
Although cutting a tree down will not prevent ash dieback from spreading. The spores of the ash drybag fungus can travel for up to 10 miles on the wind, so the disease clearly spreads really fast. For now, forest estate managers can only watch and monitor the die back until the time the world tries to tackle the ongoing climate crisis. The risk of diseases like hash dieback will be a constant threat.
