Ashes to ashes? Friday 2nd November 2012 Ash die back cpt Steve
Collin, Norfolk Wildlife Trust Ecology needs to be at the heart
of the Government's response A knee-jerk reaction to dealing
with ash die back in the UK may result in the wrong solution
being found to tackle the disease, unnecessarily reducing our
ashes to ashes. Following the Government’s crisis committee
Cobra meeting to discuss ash die back (on Fri 2 Nov), The
Wildlife Trusts believe there are key questions1 still to be
answered. The answers to these questions might lead to different
short and long-term responses. We urge the Government to not be
drawn in to knee-jerk and potentially damaging ‘solutions’.
Reports about 100,000 infected trees in nurseries being
destroyed in a bid to prevent the disease spreading have led to
speculation about the destruction of ash throughout the
countryside. If the disease is widespread, this approach may be
ineffective and could be counter-productive in the wider
environment. There are valuable lessons we can