Council checks Ash trees for contagious Ash Dieback (From Enfield Independent)

Enfield Borough Council checks Ash trees for contagious Ash Dieback

11:00am Monday 29th October 2012 in News By Hermione Wright

Enfield Borough Council is checking Ash trees for evidence of a serious disease which has been discovered in Suffolk and Norfolk.

The highly contagious infection, called Ash Dieback, can wipe out the affected tree and spread to other Ash trees extremely quickly.

The council believes it is unlikely Enfield’s trees will be hit by the disease, but it is checking all Ash trees it has planted in the last four years as well as places with high concentrations of the species to be safe.

Cabinet member for environment, Councillor Chris Bond, said: "We have started the massive task of checking our Ash trees from infection, but as one of London's greenest boroughs we fully acknowledge this will be an enormous task because of the sheer number of Ash trees in our borough.

"While we think the chances of finding diseased Ashes is small, if we find any evidence of this infection, we'll take immediate steps to have the tree removed to stop the spread of infection and arrange for an appropriate tree to be replanted in its place.”

The fungus, also called Chalara fraxinea, wiped out approximately 90 per cent of Ash trees in Denmark in 2003.

The council said it buys its trees from contactors and requests that the trees are bought from UK suppliers.

However, it admits there is a “small chance” a few trees are Dutch or Danish.

Symptoms include dead branch tips and leaf loss.