Move to halt ash tree imports from Europe as experts claim 30% of UK's wooded landscape is at risk from fatal fungus

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

A ban on imports of ash trees from Europe may not be enough to stop an epidemic of a deadly disease wiping out most of the species' 80m trees in the UK, the government has been warned.

The president of the Country Land and Business Association, Harry Cotterell, said one of the best-loved features of the British landscape faces devastation due to the spread of the fungus chalara fraxinea into the wild, eight months after it was first discovered in the UK.

Cotterell said the UK faced a "national tragedy" as ash trees make up 15%-30% of the wooded landscape, across woodlands, hedgerows and parks.

The environment secretary, Owen Paterson, told the Commons on Thursday that a ban would start on Monday in a bid to halt the disease, which has already killed 90% of ash trees in Denmark.

On Wednesday, it was confirmed the disease had spread beyond plantations and nurseries into Norfolk and Suffolk. The find has raised fears of a repeat of the Dutch elm disease epidemic in the 1970s, which wiped out virtually the entire 25m-strong mature elm population by the 1990s.

The impact of the ban would depend on how widely the disease had already spread in the wild, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I think the real concern is that geographically, it looks like the disease may have arrived into the wild on the wind.

"It has already have been discovered in at least 11 woods in Norfolk and Suffolk."

The ash is "one of our iconic native species", second only to the oak as the best-known tree in the British countryside, said Cotterell.

"If the ash stock in the countryside is devastated, it will be a national tragedy.

"I think this is a call to arms for the country, because they demonstrated when the forest sell-off was proposed that they really love their woodland, and this is a really huge threat."

While he welcomed the import ban, Cotterell criticised the government for not warning of the disease in the UK earlier.

"It's a great pity that we weren't told about it until two or three weeks ago, whereas it clearly had been discovered in nursery stock and young trees in the spring. I think we could have started looking for it – the real concern is to find out the true extent of it."

The Woodland Trust has called for an emergency summit or taskforce to tackle tree diseases, before another species is lost for good.

Its chief executive added: "We would also urge the secretary of state to ban the movement of ash around the UK until the extent of ash dieback, and how it is spread, has been determined.

"We also ask government scientists to give urgent and clear advice to all woodland owners on how to manage the disease.

"The government must set up an emergency summit bringing together representatives from all areas of forestry, plant health and conservation because today it's ash but tomorrow yet another of our precious native trees could be at risk."

The Forestry Commission is urging forest managers and tree professionals to use the information on its website about the disease, inspect trees again and report any suspected to be infected.

As a precaution, the Commission is suspending the planting of ash trees in public forests it manages.

The Horticultural Trades Association has already urged members to abide by a voluntary moratorium on importing ash trees for planting in this country.

Paterson said that the import ban would be accompanied by strict movement restrictions on ash trees already in the country, to prevent the spread of the disease to unaffected areas of the country.

He denied the government had acted slowly since the disease was first detected in the UK in February, pointing out that more than 1,000 sites had already been checked and 50,000 trees burnt.

Commercial imports of ash trees do not begin until November each year, so the only possibility of infected plants reaching the country over the summer would be if individuals brought them back from nurseries on the continent in their cars, he said.

He appealed for anyone who knows of small-scale imports of this kind to contact the authorities.