ash die back

mcusack

Hi there,

Has anyone received a notification from the Dept. of Forestry to remove and destroy their ash tree plantation? I have recently been issued with one such order and would like to find out if anyone else is in a similar situation. It is my understanding that the fault lies with one company in particular who imported this infected stock from Holland.

tabby aspreme

Sorry to hear your trees have chalara, I can't be of any help to you, but could you tell me what year they were planted in, and did you meet the forestry inspector when the trees were inspected for chalara. i planted in 2010 and i have concerns over my own trees but its wait and see for the moment

TomOnBoard

mcusack wrote: »

Hi there,

Has anyone received a notification from the Dept. of Forestry to remove and destroy their ash tree plantation? I have recently been issued with one such order and would like to find out if anyone else is in a similar situation. It is my understanding that the fault lies with one company in particular who imported this infected stock from Holland.

Dreadful news for you. Did they offer you any help in the destruction. guidance etc.? Or were you just given a bald notification without any offer of official help?

mcusack

My trees were planted in 2009. I wasn't on site when the inspector came but I was contacted and given the bad news by the original forester who planted the trees. This was then followed by an official letter from the department of Forestry. If your trees are of Irish origin you should be ok. At the moment, ash die back seems to be affecting imported stock only. Ironically, I wanted Irish stock to be planted originally but was advised by the forester that the Dutch stock was of 'better quality'. The department of Forestry will pay for the removal and replanting of the site, however, ash trees (even if Irish origin) are no longer grant funded for new planting.

tabby aspreme

The trees I have were imported.
Would many of the trees have died in the first few years of planting , or did it all happen in the last year ,

Oldtree

tabby aspreme wrote: »

The trees I have were imported.
Would many of the trees have died in the first few years of planting , or did it all happen in the last year ,

symptoms can take up to 4 years to show.

Tests carried out have also shown trees infected without showing symptoms.

mcusack

Hi Tabby,

Our trees showed no obvious visual signs of die back other than what appeared to look like slight wind/frost damage on a very small number of trees.

Massey10

mcusack wrote: »

Hi Tabby,

Our trees showed no obvious visual signs of die back other than what appeared to look like slight wind/frost damage on a very small number of trees.

Did they send a sample to the lab. I see alot of ash in hedge rows with what i guessed to be frost damage .

mcusack

Yes the samples were sent to a lab. There have been a lot of imported ash trees planted in hedgerows and along newly built roads.

periodictable

The official line is that Ireland is "chalara free".
This is because all imported trees were apparently infected before they were imported here, and there is no evidence of the disease spreading to trees which are either native or imported from non-infected areas. Thus, the Forest Service has to present the EU with evidence that we are in fact "chalara free" before it will consider allowing the state to ban outright the import of ANY ash, be it living plant or lumber.
Free trade supposedly trumps everything and the Europe doesn't care about us protecting our forest base.
The refusal to appoint of a minister of state for forestry also shows the lack of regard the current government has for forestry as they prefer to play politics instead of doing the right thing.