Mountain Ash - damage or disease

[Will Marsh]

I have recently started renovating some predominantly oak woodland in East Sussex.  However, all the Mountain Ash is the wood is in dreadful shape and or dead and dying.  Can anyone tell me if this is disease or animal damage? Apologies if this is obvious but I'm new to this.

[Paul in the woods]

I don't know what it is, it has a look of a cross between mechanical damage and ash die back.

 

I get lots of squirrel damage in my woodlands and it doesn't look like that, and the tree rats don't seem to go for them. If it goes above 1.5m or so then It's not deer damage. 

 

Are the leaves damaged at all? It might just be a reaction to the very dry and very wet weather?

 

This thread might he worth a read: