The state of trees in South Wales

[benedmonds]

I have recently returned from a cycling trip to South Wales (where I rode 2 abreast and held up numerous car drivers) and was shocked by the state of the the trees, thousands of dead  larch, whole blocks knackered and ash dieback evident on many young ash .

 

I have obviously read about it but not seen it on such a scale.. I have not encountered anything like it in the east midlands...

 

Pretty scary..

[Tom Richards]

Hi Ben I was up at lathkill dale ( Derbyshire the other weekend and there is evidence of Ash die back up there in young trees. If it gets hold up there the landscape will look a lot different.

[slack ma girdle]

From where i am standing every Ash has Chalara. Pembrokeshire seems to be particularly badly affected.

[devon TWiG]

I had a trip to Snowdonia on my motorbike last weekend , and saw Chalara all over the place  

 it is in Devon as well , on one recent trip across Exmoor there were entire woodlands dead from spruce bark beetle , probably we are the only ones who notice such things !!  The Welsh will probably blame  English Tory Scum  !!! I blame cyclists holding up traffic and increasing pollution  ?  , however the speed limit on motorways in wales has been reduced to 50 mph now  ( to raise funds from speeding fines to pay for cycle paths )   

[Gary Prentice]

19 hours ago, benedmonds said:

have obviously read about it but not seen it on such a scale.. I have not encountered anything like it in the east midlands...

Give it a few years.

 

can anyone give an estimation of the longevity of mature trees after infection?

[benedmonds]

After saying I have not seen Chalara locally, saw a young tree with classic symptoms in Nottingham today.. 

 

[Philip Anderson]

Not good in Norfolk many very sick looking Ash about 

 

[Stere]

Many saplings are completely dead apart from a few sprouts  at base, many trees around 30yrs old age top of  canopy twigs dead. Least  visible signs on the 50yrs old plus trees though a few some are showing signs also.

 

How fast will it progress to kill  the mature trees after they first show symptoms?

[Gary Prentice]

13 hours ago, benedmonds said:

After saying I have not seen Chalara locally, saw a young tree with classic symptoms in Nottingham today.. 

 

Once you see one and get your 'eye in' Ben, you start to see it everywhere and then wonder how you didn't see it before. 

 

I think I saw it coming off the M1, last week,for Loughborough uni - J22?

 

[benedmonds]

I have been looking, and had not seen it locally.... I was starting to think some folk were exaggerating the presence and any ash with die back was being blamed on Chalara.. After seeing every other sapling in South Wales infected I can see why people are panicking.. It will be carnage here if it does as predicted..