莱斯特:神秘疾病导致大批橡树死亡

Enoch

[Leicester Mercury 英文报道 1月16日]

很多橡树都是100多岁的，现在不得不砍掉200多棵橡树

http://www.leicestermercury.co.u ... ;contentPK=19567332

MYSTERY DISEASE IS KILLING ANCIENT OAK TREES

BY TOM MACK

10:30 - 16 January 2008

Hundreds of ancient oaks are to be chopped down as a killer tree disease ravages the Leicestershire countryside.

The trees, all at least 100 years old, are dying from a mysterious and untreatable disease known as oak decline.

Conservationists today issued a stark warning that it could change the face of the county's woodland for a generation.

Tests from the Forestry Commission have confirmed that hundreds of slowly decaying oaks in Charnwood Forest are being killed by the condition.

More than 200 trees will have to be cut down in Booth Wood and the disease has spread afield to Swithland Wood - home of some of the finest ancient oak trees in the county.

Mark Graham, Charnwood Borough Council's wildlife officer, said: "We've just taken down a dozen oaks and we have a couple of hundred showing symptoms - that's well over half the oaks in Booth Wood. Our experience is that these trees will die.

"The loss of these oak trees has a huge impact on the look of the woodland and a detrimental effect for the wildlife that lives in the woods, too.

"We can't do anything other than make them safe as they die. We could be looking at the same sort of thing as Dutch elm disease."

The virulent condition kills the tree from the top down. Leaves start to thin and symptoms include seeing a black fluid leaking from cankers in the trunk.

Oaks with the disease are less able to fight off infections from insects or parasites.

He said when spring comes many more cases could emerge. Already oaks in Outwoods, near Quorn, and on roadsides in the Charnwood area have similar symptoms.

Graham Walley, an environmental expert at Leicestershire County Council, said that if the disease spread to oaks across the county it would devastate Leicestershire.

He said: "Oaks are one of the major trees in woods and along hedgerows in Leicestershire. The biggest concentration is in Bradgate Park where some are many centuries old. It would be devastating to lose those.

"Oak decline is clearly raising its head in Leicestershire and it seems to be one of the worst-hit places in the country so far."

David Snartt, who is chairman of the Outwoods Management Committee and a Charnwood borough councillor, said: "Charnwood does seem to be a national hotspot for oak decline and in Outwoods we have about 25 trees with the disease and that number is rising.

"We involved the Forestry Commission because we did not know what the problem was at first.

"If all the oaks in Outwoods died it would devastate the woods for at least 25 years. The oak trees are the jewel in the crown of Charnwood Forest and we have to keep a very close eye on this problem."