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Act 1605 or the Thanksgiving Act, was passed in 1606 to enforce a public holiday - however this act was finally repealed in 1859.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)

The Great Storm of twenty five years ago (and a few days)

It was twenty five years ago (and a week ago) that the South East of England was hit, by what some newspapers called, a hurricane or a very strong storm. Michael Fish MBE is a weather forecaster who has worked for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and is still known for a comment before a forecast he made on the 15th of October 1987:

"Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way... well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!"

It was suggested that Michael Fish was referring to Hurricane Floyd in Florida, USA that had developed off the coast of Nicaragua on the 9th of October and had been referred to in the One O'Clock News bulletin. But to his credit, Mr. Fish did warn people of high winds for the UK and to "batten down the hatches", but the storm did turn out to be a lot stronger than predicted.

The BBC On This Day website for the 16th of October records that "at least 13 people are known to have died and many dozens have been injured, mostly by falling trees and buildings...winds hit 94 miles per hour (151 kilometres per hour) in the capital and over 110 miles per hour (177 kilometres per hour) in the Channel Islands" and "In the London Borough of Ealing alone, 600 calls came from people whose homes and cars had been struck by falling trees and debris."
 
 The BBC Science and Environment website for the 15th of October 2012 records that "an estimated 15 million trees were uprooted...with winds recorded at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour (160 kilometres per hour or 86 knots)" and "at Toys Hill, the highest point in Kent, about 98% of the woodland...was lost".

It was suggested that this widespread devastation of woodlands was going to be disastrous, but with time it has been shown that the storm helped increase the woodland biota. Dr. Keith Kirby (of Natural England), a co-author on the Great Storm's ecological impact on woodlands (an interesting pdf on climate and woodland ecology can be found here) reported that the lack of woodland exploitation after the Second World War and decreased coppicing had led to the woodland canopy closing over and reducing the low-level biodiversity. The storm opened up the canopy and led to an increase in bluebell and primrose density as well as a temporary increase in the fritillary (a woodland butterfly)  population

Dr. Peter Buckley, the other co-author with Dr. Keith Kirby, found that the effects post storm changed the past monoculture of the woodlands. The tightly packed tall trees had shallow roots that led to them being easily ripped out, whereas as coppiced trees tend to be kept shorter and lead to less trees being damaged by the stronger winds. A lot of the woods regenerated naturally with pioneer species and since there were struggling with nature, there was less need for artificial management.

What are your memories of the Great Storm in 1987? Please add your comments.

Non-Native Bird Species

This week, on Radio 4, there is a series of programmes on foreign birds - The Alien Birds Have Landed - transmitted at 1.45pm on BBC Radio 4.

The Daily Telegraph's Radio reviewer, Gillian Reynolds, describes the first programme, with its emphasis on the Common Pheasant "The common pheasant is native to Asia but has been introduced all around the world because it adapts easily to new surroundings, breeds well and tastes good. Maybe the Romans brought them to Britain. Alison Steadman narrates this engaging series, on FM. Tomorrow, the ruddy duck and Canada goose."

The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is discussed here.

The second programme focuses on both the Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) and the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) and the details of the programme are here. Both of these species have come from the Americas, yet one is loved and one is persecuted.

The third discusses both the large and small of the owl family - the Eagle Owl (Bubo family) and the Little Owl (Athene noctua) and the radio programme is found here.

The fourth discusses the Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), I have heard these in Sevenoaks, the programme is found here.

The fifth, and final programme, describes why the Starling (Sturnidae family) is hated in North America and the Blackbird (Turdus merula) is equally hated in New Zealand.

Where do you draw the line on non-native bird species - here are a few articles on non native species from About.com, IBIS (the International Journal of Avian Science) and  the R.S.P.B.. I am sure we will come back to this topic.