Ash dieback disease has been one of the major headlines in environment industry news over the past couple of years and new research has finally bought us some hope in managing its spread, in the form of a particularly resistant tree named ‘Betty’.
Ash dieback Hymenoscyphus fraxineus is a chronic fungal disease of ash trees which has spread throughout Europe, being first identified in the UK in 2012. The initial response to the management of the disease was to ‘slash and burn’ infected specimens. However new research co-funded by Defra and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) suggests that this may be counterproductive. This is because in every population there is genetic variation and where disease is present, variation in the resistance to the disease will occur. By looking closely at the genes in a population of trees in Norfolk, scientist were able to identify a tree which had the greatest resistance to the disease and they nicknamed the tree ‘Betty’. So what hope does Betty offer us? Well Ash trees are very common in our landscape and their loss would result in the loss of a lot of trees which provide important regulatory services such as carbon sequestration. In terms of landscape, they offer us something different in the shape of their leaves, light filtering levels and late blooming period. In ecological terms they feature as a co-dominant canopy tree in our most prevalent woodland ecosystems in the south-east of England, providing food and homes to invertebrates, bats and birds. The research means that scientists could breed a resistant variety of ash tree more likely to survive the disease. In the future, JFA could be recommending resistant strains of ash in our planting proposals and could offer Clients with more solutions to arboricultural and ecological mitigation. More information on this story can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/a-new-breakthrough-on-ash-dieback.
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