November 2, 2012

Ash dieback and other threats to Britain’s trees

Ash dieback – Chalara fraxinea – has been found in the UK and comparisons are already being made with the devastation of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.

A panel of leading plant pathologists presented the latest on the spread of Chalara and address such questions as

• What will this do to Britain’s ash trees, will they recover, and how will it change the landscape? 
• How did it get here – and could it have been stopped? 
• What other threats to Britain’s trees are scientists anticipating in the future, where do they come from and how can they be addressed? 
• Why should we care?

Speakers:

Dr Joan Webber, Principal Pathologist and Head of Tree Health Research Group at Forest Research

Prof Michael Shaw, Plant Pathologist at Reading University and President-elect of the British Society for Plant Pathology

Dr Steve Woodward, Reader in the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen

Dr David Slawson, Leader of the Tree Health and Behavioural Change Programme at the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA)

Prof Ian Boyd, Chief Scientific Advisor at DEFRA