Ash Dieback
Ash
Ash Die Back disease was profiled in the New Year edition of Farmers Club Journal. It prompted Club member Zoe Battiscombe-Scott to write this piece THERE is always a tension living with someone who works on the land. As a former Londoner, I have spent the 24 years of my marriage to Christopher learning to be sensitive to the weather. I appear to be an expert, to my city dwelling friends, on over-watering trees and how to manage a tree nursery on the sandy land that is our home in North Nottinghamshire. My husband took over Green Mile Trees, a successful tree nursery near Retford, from his late father. He raises 70,000 field grown trees over 70 acres, plus a splendid plantation of container-grown stock, including topiary and hedging. Christopher's trees are mature and large, starting around 4m, providing instant landscape for parkland, properties, business parks and public locations. All the vagaries of the weather are put up with, and the recession too, which has had a ten times greater impact. But Christopher has kept the business efficient and lean. He was even daring to glimpse the light at the end of tunnel. That was until the fateful day when, quite suddenly, Chalara fraxinea hit the headlines. Latin, the spoken and written language of nurserymen, was quite suddenly leading the national TV news. Christopher sat, stunned, in front of the BBC News to learn he was banned from selling or transporting these trees for the foreseeable future. Every year he expects to sell about 1000 Ash trees and he has five years supply. As Christopher explains: “Whilst a movement ban had become necessary, we had received no information on the disease from Defra until their announcements through the mass media.” In a moment £50,000-worth of sales were wiped away. Not just this year, but £50,000 this year and the next, and the next. and the next, and the next. To add insult to injury, Defra had only recently visited and given a clean bill of health to each and every one of his 5000 native English Ash trees. To say Christopher was furious is an understatement. The Government told him about Chalara fraxinea via the 6 O’ Clock News! It was tree
growers, in 2009 after a trip to Scandinavia, who first told Government about Ash Die Back. But DEFRA wouldn't listen. It was the Horticultural Trade Association which asked the government to increase biosecurity. Government did nothing. When Foot and Mouth disease hit, the public understood how very dramatically this awful disease would affect farmers, their families, communities and other businesses. The case for compensation was recognised. When it comes to trees that adorn urban streets, schools, supermarket entrances, parks and heathland, the public, journalists and politicians seem less clear.
Ash dieback disease restrictions hit the Green Mile Trees nursery of Farmers Club member Christopher BattiscombeScott hard – despite Defra giving all 5000 ash trees a clean bill of health just days before.
But believe me a £50,000 drop in profits for this year and five successive years is devastating for even an efficient business. The horticulture lobby may be smaller and less powerful, but Government needs to compensate and take on board our expertise, not ignore us. At Christmas, my husband usually takes our children to select a pine tree to decorate at home. This year, Christopher insisted we use one of his 5000 redundant Ash trees. We had fun spraying it gold and there was a lot of laughter. But it was a black gallows humour. For me, the worst moment came when Defra apparently started to manipulate the media using the phrase: “Ash Die Back blew in from Europe”. How disappointing that no journalist challenged this garbage. The disease did not "blow in". It arrived in this country because of poor biosecurity. The idea that Ash Die Back can “blow” across an ocean allows Government to justify its decision not to pay compensation. Yet in reality it was Government's failure to listen to tree growers which led to this disease arriving in Britain. Christopher concludes: “When the summer comes, the devastation of Ash trees will be more apparent and may mirror that of Dutch Elm. Where a disease is known to exist in trees abroad, the Government must heed expert advice to ban imports. More stringent biosecurity and inspections would protect British businesses and British plant life.”
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