Ash dieback disease finally reaches Hampshire

Ash Dieback Disease

Ash dieback disease finally reaches Hampshire

Published in the Hampshire Chronicle on 18th July 2014

Story by Andrew Napier

 

THE first case of ash dieback disease has been found in Hampshire.

The disease has been discovered at the Alice Holt Forest in the north-east of the county more than two years after it was first found in the UK.

Hampshire had been one of the last counties in England to be free of the disease.

Conservationists are worried it could devastate the ash population in the same way Dutch Elm Disease wiped out elm trees in the 1970s.

A Forestry Commission spokesman said the case was believed to have been long-established rather than a new tree being planted.

There is a forestry research station at Alice Holt Forest. “It is no surprise the first instance would turn up in a place like Alice Holt because it has a lot of visits by foresters and researchers,” he said.

He said infected trees would only be cut down if there was a public safety issue.

Ash trees make up 1.4 per cent of Alice Holt Forest so the immediate impact is not expected to be great.

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