Thursday, 1 November 2012

They All Fall Down?

It has been pointed out that ash dieback disease is only one of the latest imported conditions to have substantial detrimental effects on UK trees (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/31/biosecurity-nature-hurricane-sandy-ash?INTCMP=SRCH). Biosecurity seems very weak in the UK with fungal infections of other trees including the Horse chestnut, Processionary moth caterpillars decimating oak trees in the SE and long-horn beetles arriving from China in wood packaging around imported stones. It has even been noted that it is highly likely that the replanting of native trees from UK seeds can involve their transport to the Netherlands where they are grown up before being repatriated. It is pretty obvious that there is much scope for improving the biosecurity of our native habitats.

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