Most UK ash trees will be diseased within 10 years, ministers told

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/02/ash-tree-disease-10-years


The Cobra emergency meeting heard that spores from infected clusters can be being spread on leaves and even clothes. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Ash dieback disease will spread across the UK by around 20 miles a year, infecting most of the country's 90m ash trees within a decade, the government was told Friday at a crisis meeting with its leading environment advisers.

It is feared many more clusters will be identified in the next year and that spores from the fungus will spread from the east of England and Scotland to eventually cover Britain – in some cases carried on people's clothes.

The grim picture was set out by Ian Boyd, chief scientist with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, at a national emergency Cabinet Office briefing room (Cobra) meeting led by the environment secretary, Owen Paterson.

Even if the native ash tree cannot be saved, the meeting was told, such is the tide of similar deadly plant diseases now coming into Britain on millions of imported plants every year that drastic measures like long quarantine periods and passports for all plants may be needed.