Ash Die Back

Spring has arrived in full force these last couple of days . Blue skies and new growth push the memories of dark and wet days a bit further from our minds. As we are pushing ahead with many projects such as the polytunnels and the Jam Jar science project, we are also mapping out sites that we want to collects seeds from once the trees produce their bounty. As we are wandering the fields and ditches around Killorglin and Cromane the ravaging effects of Ash Die Back is clear. This year these trees are late to put out their foliage, but you can clearly see which trees will be disappearing from our landscape in the next couple of years.

Ash Die Back is a chronic fungal disease -Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (previously known as Chalara fraxinea) - that causes loss of foliage and is most obvious when you look at the crown of the tree, as this will die off. This disease can attack any age Ash tree, but the young ones are especially vulnerable. It originates from Asia and came to Ireland in 2012 on imported trees that were infected. In the 1980’s farmers were encouraged to grow plantations of Ash trees as the demand for it’s wood was high, it’s mainly used for making hurleys. What we are witnessing now is large sites full of dead or dying trees and farmers having to invest in removing said dead trees.

On our walks through fields we witness Ash trees obviously dying from Ash Die Back sending out suckers to try to survive. We will be collecting seed from seemingly healthy Ash trees and hope that those that are surviving so far are genetically tolerant to withstand this disease. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but for every 100 ash trees we grow, let’s hope 1 will be strong enough to withstand this disease.