Remember, remember the Ash in November

It seems fitting today that we should remember trees, both the living and the dead. The Fifth of November is a day for remembering...people light bonfires to celebrate that King James the First of England and the Sixth of Scotland survived an assassination attempt on his life where Guy Fawkes and 11 other plotters tried to blow up the House of Lords in 1605.

An Act of Parliament, the Observance of 5th November Act 1605 or the Thanksgiving Act, was passed in 1606 to enforce a public holiday - however this act was finally repealed in 1859. Yet still the thanksgiving is remembered by erecting and then burning a central bonfire as well as setting off fireworks in various displays.

However, this year we should try to remember the wood that makes up these bonfires - in a post of this blog from the 13th of September 2011, I posted a poem about different types of firewood with this verse about the ash logs:

But ash logs, all smooth and grey,
Burn them green or old;
Buy up all that come your way,
They're worth their weight in gold.

But in the last few weeks it has come to light that a fungus, Chalara fraxinea, is attacking ash trees. This fungal pathogen causes leaf loss and affects the crown part of the tree. The fungus was first identified in Poland in 1992. The Forestry Commission web page states "In February 2012 it was found in a consignment of infected trees sent from a nursery in the Netherlands to a nursery in Buckinghamshire, England"and other sites of infection have been found over England and Scotland.

The Forestry Commission states that "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", a pictorial guide (as a pdf) has been released and the following details have been published to report outbreaks.

Fera: 01904 465625;
 planthealth.info@fera.gsi.gov.uk
Forestry Commission: 0131 314 6414;
 plant.health@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

The BBC reported that over 100,000 trees have been destroyed to an attempt to stop the spread of the fungus and the University of East Anglia have developed an app for smart phones to identify and log potential outbreaks and can be found here.

So as you remember, remember the Fifth of November, also remember, remember the Ash and look at your trees to see if the Chalara fraxinea fungus has reached your area.


(The Eurolink pictures will be added later)