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Sylva Blog

The Treewatch blog is part of the SYLVA Foundation blog which contains news about the organisation and all our initiatives.

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November 21, 2012
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Adopt an Ash and help secure a future for ash trees in Britain

in category: Front Page, TreeWatch

Adopt an Ash on TreeWatch.com

The outbreak of ash dieback caused by Chalara fraxinea is a serious threat to the future survival of ash in Britain. We want volunteers to Adopt an Ash in readiness for a major survey that we will launch in late Spring 2013. This is a new TreeWatch survey that is being developed with our partners.

As one of Britain’s most common trees, the loss of up to 90% of ash trees across of our countryside and our streets, is expected to have a massive and long-lasting impact on the landscape and woodland ecology.

You can help find ‘resistant’ ash trees across the country and track the development of the disease. Your data will be shared with a consortium of forestry and horticultural experts. By adopting your ash tree now you will be ready to take part in a robust scientific survey to be launched Early Spring, by which time the disease will be easy to spot.

We recognise that there are other volunteer projects in existence, such as Ashtag, but we believe that we are well-placed to collect and share data with partners through our tried and tested TreeWatch initiative with the following unique and important objectives:

the main objective will be to try and identify ‘resistant’ trees that could be used in a breeding programme to secure a future for ash in Britain;
the Adopt an Ash tree method supports a relationship with the volunteer and allows repeat assessments to be undertaken;
by asking volunteers to identify and report both the presence and absence of Chalara fraxinea, we will be able to track the progress of the disease on individual trees and across the country over coming years.

For now we are asking volunteers to select trees that they will be able survey next year, and to ‘adopt’ them in the usual way at www.TreeWatch.com/chalara.

By late Spring 2013 the disease will be easier to identify in our ash trees and we will open our survey in time to allow volunteers to report their findings. We will share tree data (note not personal data) with a consortium of leading forestry and horticultural experts.

November 8, 2012
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Chalara fraxinea – advice for woodland owners

in category: myForest, TreeWatch

The outbreak of Chalara fraxinea in the British countryside is very major story that cannot have escaped anyone’s notice. Infected sites currently total 115, distributed from SE England, East Anglia and the Midlands, to Scotland, to Wales.

Through the myForest Service, Sylva supports currently some 700 woodland owners who manage about 15,000 hectares of woodlands across Britain. We encourage all woodland owners to keep abreast of a very fluid situation in terms of current status of the outbreak and advice from Government and scientists and how we should all respond. The best place to keep informed is via the Forestry Commission webpage: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/chalara. Meanwhile, Sylva offers the following advice to woodland owners:

Inspect ash trees in your woodland without delay. Before the winter winds remove all leaves, those infected by Chalara can be quite obvious in that they persist after those that drop as usual in the Autumn (see image). On young trees, coppice regrowth or other regeneration the lesions can be quite easy to spot. On older wood they are less clear. Dieback in the canopy may be possible to spot during the dormant season but it is easy to miss.
If you believe that you have Chalara fraxinea in your woodland contact the Forestry Commission without delay. The Forestry Commission are treating C. fraxinea as a ‘quarantine’ plant pathogen, which means that they may use emergency powers to contain or eradicate it when it is found. This is being done in the form of Statutory Plant Health Notices which they serve on affected owners requiring them to remove and destroy affected plants by burning or deep burial on site. This situation may change in time.
Where possible implement rigorous biosecurity measures. Follow the advice of the Forestry Commission’s Biosecurity Measures.
In terms of minimising the impact of the pathogen on ash trees within an infected woodland, current thinking is that the removal and burning of ash leaf litter may reduce the prevalence of the pathogen next year. This may be a practical action in high value sites, such as important biodiversity areas, parklands, garden trees or perhaps notable ancient trees. In larger ash stands clearly this may not be practicable.
Felling of diseased trees. Advice is not yet clear on this issue. Note that finding resistant trees in the ‘wild’ will be very important in creating the foundation for a new population of trees resistant to the pathogen. Felling all ash trees in infected woodlands therefore, cannot be recommended.
Before transporting ash wood, check the Forestry Commission webpage for the latest advice.

Over the coming weeks the Government’s taskforce will be bringing together experts to build up a picture of the current status and the appropriate measures that we should be taking to try and reduce the impact of this devastating pathogen. Our Chief Executive, Dr Gabriel Hemery, is taking an active role in the taskforce and we will be providing up-to-date information here when available.

Photographs taken by Gabriel Hemery during the expert taskforce
visit to Wayland Wood in Norfolk earlier this week.

: persistent ash leaves due to Chalara

: necrosis in ash stem from Chalara fraxinea infection

: Joan Webber, Principal Pathologist and Head of Tree Health at Forest Research, discusses Chalara fraxinea in a Norfolk woodland

: close up of Chalara fraxinea lesion on young ash coppice stem

: Chalara fraxinea lesion on young ash stem – click to enlarge

: ash coppice stools infected with Chalara fraxinea

Further information

Forestry Commission information on Chalara fraxinea
Food & Environment Research agency information on Chalara fraxinea
Online discussion forum on The Guardian – with a contribution from the Sylva Foundation

October 17, 2012
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One thousandth tree registered on TreeWatch

in category: TreeWatch

The one thousandth tree has been registered on the TreeWatch website, reflecting increasing interest in our citizen science initiative.

It comes the same month as the devastating new disease on ash, Chalara fraxinea or ash dieback, finally attracted the national media attention it deserved, and the same year that sweet chestnut blight and the Asian longhorn beetle were reported in the UK. These diseases and pests are added to a growing number of existing health issues affecting our trees including acute oak decline in oak, Phytopthora ramorum in larch, the oak processionary moth and more besides.

The age of the citizen scientist is certainly of the moment, as a growing army of volunteers capable of sighting and reporting tree health issues, can be a very powerful weapon in our defense of trees especially when working alongside tree professionals and scientists. This is the role of the TreeWatch initiative. As our slogan for TreeWatch reads … people power for healthy trees!

www.TreeWatch.com

October 10, 2012
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Ash dieback – Chalara fraxinea

in category: red alert, TreeWatch, TreeWatch Updates

UPDATE: ash dieback was confirmed today to be present in two woodlands in the East of England. These are the first confirmed cases of the fungal pathogen outside tree nurseries. 25th October 2012.

A devastating new disease affecting ash trees is now present in Britain.

Chalara fraxinea information on the Forestry Commission website

A fungus called Chalara fraxinea (C. fraxinea) causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and it can lead to tree death. It has devastated 90% of ash trees in Denmark, leading to concerns that the disease could have a similar impact on the British landscape as Dutch elm disease. It is likely that Defra will implement an import ban by November after calls from across the forestry sector.

Ash trees suffering from symptoms likely to be caused by C. fraxinea have been found widely across Europe over the last 10 years. These have included forest trees, trees in urban areas such as parks and gardens, and also young trees in nurseries. Symptoms include the wilting of leaves and dieback. During the dormant winter period it can be hard to spot but black lessions on stems are tell-tale warning signs.

It was first reported in the UK in February 2012 after it was found in a consignment of infected trees sent from a nursery in the Netherlands. Over the Summer new cases were soon reported first in central England and soon after the north and east. It has been found also in four recently planted sites in Scotland.

C. fraxinea is being treated as a quarantine pest under national emergency measures, and it is important that suspected cases of the disease are reported. Visit the Forestry Commission webpage to find out more.

Read more about our work to combat tree pests and diseases at www.TreeWatch.com

Further information:

September 27, 2012
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TreeWatch surveys 2012

in category: TreeWatch

www.TreeWatch.com

It’s not too late to take part in the 2012 TreeWatch surveys. Whether you are an existing volunteer or have just come across our exciting citizen science project, take part in one of our surveys.

Survey of horse chestnut leaf miner – www.treewatch.com/leafminer
Survey of European pear rust, run jointly with the Royal Horticultural Society – www.treewatch.com/pearrust
Survey of the oak jewel beetle, run jointly with Forest Research – www.treewatch.com/oakjewel
Survey of powdery mildew on oak, run jointly with Forest Research – www.treewatch.com/powderymildew

Please take part and help us share crucial tree health data with our scientific partners.

Why not get a friend to take part too and help us reach our goal of 1000 trees adopted this year?

UPDATE

We are sorry that some users are experiencing difficulties with entering the data. We are aware that we need to make a number of improvements to make the progress of entering information more logical and with less clicks, and will be implementing these before next year’s survey season. Meanwhile we hope that the following helps:

Log in
Click on surveys
Choose the [pear rust / horse chestnut / oak jewel beetle / powdery mildew] survey page
Click on the ‘my trees’ tab
Your tree(s) should appear on the right of the map. Click on it’s name.
This will bring up below the information you need to update its status.
When done, click ‘save’

Any feedback is always appreciated

TreeWatch team