When the issue of hedge trimming came up before last Christmas (2023), I was reminded in a very real sense of the challenges ash dieback poses.
What I was most worried about was the row of ash trees that had not been touched by anyone for over 10 years.
I thought they might have infected the ash. If I was infected, how bad was the problem?
Above all, we wanted to be sure that if the decision was made to start cutting down trees, we were not violating any conservation-related regulations.
So, we decided to request the services of a professional forestry expert. It didn’t take long for insight into the scale of the ash dieback problem to emerge.
Within minutes of arriving, the forest officer confirmed to me that 75% of the trees were infected with the disease.
His advice was very simple: “Start cutting.”
Risk of ash dieback
He justified this approach based on two realities. First, trees die over time.
Second, as this process progresses, branches begin to fall from the tree. Additionally, diseased trees are more likely to fall during storms.
One additional problem arises when a tree falls or heavy parts fall from the tree. Insurance nightmare.
In my case, none of the infected trees were adjacent to a road. But now millions of ash trees are planted in the hedgerows that mark every country road in this country.
In addition to this, most of these trees grow on farmers’ land.
Given this reality, the potential for entire trees and their limbs to fall onto passing cars and people is enormous.
In the event of an accident, all investigations will focus on the landowner when sorting out subsequent compensation claims.
Prevention is always better than cure. Having said that, I strongly encourage all farmers with grown ash trees on their property to have their trees professionally evaluated.
This includes volcanic ash forests located away from public roads. These trees can fall when families and farm workers walk or drive past them.
Again, this is an accident-related scenario that no one wants to happen.
For the record, trees identified on my own property clearly showed signs of disease after being cut down.
It’s also worth pointing out that many of these same trees appeared to have been leafy throughout the previous growing season.