U.K. tries to curb ash dieback

LONDON -- The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has admitted it will be impossible to eradicate ash dieback from the U.K. in its management plan published today.

The department also fails to offer any specific support for nurseries which have had to discard unsaleable ash.

The plan (click here) released by the department outlines four key objectives as follows:

• Reducing the rate of spread of the disease
• Developing resistance to the disease in the native ash tree population
• Encouraging landowner, citizen and industry engagement in surveillance, monitoring and action in tackling the problem
• Building economic and environmental resilience in woodlands.

Defra said it is planting 250,000 ash saplings in the east and south east so Defra scientists and the Forestry Commission and local landowners can monitor the trees for signs of Chalara, paying particular attention to any signs of resistance.

The Government's Chalara Action Plan was issued on March 26, more than a year after it first found the disease in the country.

In that time, chalara fraxinea has spread nationwide and Defra has introduced a plant health team into the department, as it struggled to respond to the disease.

Click here to read the rest of the article.