Ash dieback disease ‘not as serious as Dutch elm’

It was announced on Monday that ‘ash dieback’ had been confirmed at seven locations.

The disease has killed 90% of Denmark's ash trees.

Temporary provisions were brought in to address the outbreak of Dutch elm disease in 1981 which threatened the main tree cover in Guernsey at the time.

As a result a replanting scheme in the 1990s was introduced which increased the range and diversity of tree species on the island.

Younger ash trees are more susceptible to the airborne disease than larger ones and as ash make up only 5-10% of the tree population in Guernsey, tree surgeon Phil Collenette said it will not present a problem for tree surgeons.

‘I don’t think it’s going to be costly.

‘The advice we’re giving now is if the tree is showing symptoms to measure them for the time being.

‘They cross pollinate so it’s very likely that a disease resistant strain will emerge.

‘The older trees can present a risk to health and safety so they’ll have to monitor that but it’s mostly young trees being affected at the moment,’ he said.

A large patch of young affected trees were found yesterday by Andy McCutcheon, principal environment services officer for Agriculture, Countryside & Land Management Services, at the Les Effards entrance to St Sampson’s High School.

‘The risk would be no more than from any other dead or dying tree; for small trees, ie under two metres, this is going to be negligible.

‘Obviously the larger the tree the bigger the potential risk but as we know larger trees take longer to die, in the case of mature trees up to several years.

‘The current advice is not to fell trees but instead monitor them for signs of resistance.

'Where work is needed to prune trees this should be determined by assessment by a professional arboriculturist,’ he said.

Ash dieback was first found by a tree surgeon at the top of Petit Bot valley.

Visit www.gov.gg/ashdieback for more information.