With ash dieback decimating our beloved ash trees across the country and diseased trees being removed on an industrial scale, we believe it is vitally important that new trees are planted wherever possible.
“We believe it is vitally important that new trees are planted,” says Stuart Silver, Ecology Director at Habitat Works Ltd. “Ash is such an iconic part of our landscape, and we’re hopeful that these new trees will give future generations the chance to enjoy it too.”
Through careful sourcing, we have secured what is hoped to be disease-tolerant ash stock from Trebrown Nurseries. Within their Cornish nursery seed stands, some trees showed signs of ash dieback, while others remained completely unaffected. Seed collected from these unaffected trees has been grown into new stock, which we are now planting as part of our native woodland schemes, with ash making up 10% of the planting.
These young trees are being planted with the hope that they will thrive and help secure ash’s place in our landscapes. We will be monitoring them closely over the coming years with our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
We’d love to hear from organisations currently specifying ash (Fraxinus excelsior) within planting schemes, and whether suitable stock has been easy to source. We would be interested to understand approaches to ash inclusion in the context of ash dieback, particularly in relation to availability, provenance, and the use of disease-tolerant material. It would be encouraging to know whether there is a coordinated effort across projects to safeguard the long-term presence of this ecologically and culturally important species within the landscape.
Please do contact us on 01484 482629 or info@habitatworks.co.uk if you’d like to chat.