THE Manx landscape would change forever if steps are not taken to tackle diseases threatening the loss of more than 75 per cent of the island’s trees, MHKs were warned.
Environment, Food and Agriculture Minister Phil Gawne announced that swift action has been taken here following the discovery of ash dieback disease in the UK.
No cases of ash dieback disease have yet been identified in the island but an immediate ban on the importation on ash trees and ash products has been imposed under emergency powers to help reduce the risk of it spreading here, Mr Gawne announced in the House of Keys.
Mr Gawne told MHKs: ‘The threat of the Isle of Man’s ash trees is real and significant and the department is taking the threat of ash dieback extremely seriously.’
The Minister said that plant importers had been requested to observe a voluntary ban on the importation of ash two weeks ago and on Monday he had signed legislation to impose a moratorium on the importation of ash plants, seeds and products. This would be submitted to the December Tynwald but it has already come into force.
Mr Gawne said something like a quarter of hedgerow trees in the island are ash.
He said that ash dieback together with other diseases such as Dutch elm and sudden oak death could result in the loss of more than 75 per cent of our trees if they were not tackled.
‘The Isle of Man would look a very bare and desolate place if that happened,’ he said.
The strain of the fungal disease chalara fraxinea that causes ash dieback was unknown in Britain until the first confirmed cases were reported in Buckinghamshire earlier this year on ash plants imported from the Netherlands. Since then, further reports of infected trees have been made across England, Scotland and Southern Ireland.
Bill Henderson (Douglas North) said given the virulence of this strain of the disease, it had the potential to ‘wipe out much of our tree stock and change our landscape forever’.
Mr Henderson also quizzed the Minister over the impact of sudden oak death, more commonly known by its Latin name of phytophthora ramorum, which continues to affect larch trees in the plantations.
Spread by spores likely to be wind borne, it was first identified in the island in September 2010. Since then, there has been extensive felling of infected trees.
Further infected trees were identified following an aerial survey carried out in September. All these were in the same previously infected area - Ballaugh plantation.
Mr Gawne said if it got out of control, it could result in not only all the larch trees disappearing, but potentially heather and blaeberries and a wide range of other native upland plants will be affected. But he said the good news was that no new infected areas had been identified. He said 8,750 cubic metres of timber will have been felled by March next year.
Areas within infected plantations would remain closed to the public, Mr Gawne, said although he hoped they would be open again in the spring.