Ash Dieback Highlights Need to protect UK’s Trees and Woodlands

Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
Female flowers and leaf bud in April.

With concerns over the arrival and spread of ash dieback in the UK growing, conservation charity Trees for Life said today that the disease highlights the urgent need to place higher priority on the conservation of the country’s native trees and woodlands, and warned that other tree diseases and pests must be taken equally seriously.

“The tragedy threatening the UK’s ash trees is a powerful warning that our native trees need help, and underlines the crucial importance of conservation work. Stronger action to protect our trees, including by preventing diseases and pests from entering the UK, is urgently needed,” said Alan Watson

ACCLAIMED FILMMAKER PLANTS MILLIONTH TREE IN CALEDONIAN FOREST – ONE OF WORLD’S GREATEST WOODLAND HABITATS

A symbolically important moment in the restoration of one of the “world’s greatest woodland habitats” was celebrated on Sunday 20 May 2012 when acclaimed wildlife cameraman and filmmaker Gordon Buchanan planted Trees for Life’s Millionth Tree in Scotland’s Caledonian Forest.

The event took place at a celebration event held at the award-winning conservation charity’s Dundreggan Estate near Loch Ness, in Glen Moriston, Inverness-shire.

"Magnificent and magical, the Caledonian Forest is a wild place at its most wonderful. Every single tree planted helps to restore one of the world's greatest woodland habitats. One tree will be used by a thousand species in a forest that will stand for 10,000 years, which in that time can be enjoyed by a million people. Great forests are established one tree at a time. I am honoured to plant the millionth tree on behalf of Trees for Life," said Gordon Buchanan.

Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s founder and executive director, said:

Trees for Life

I love trees and mountains, and trees are something there is precious little of in Scotland's Highlands, except for isolated remnants of the old Caledonian Pine Forest and modern plantations; but if Trees for Life is successful, then future generations may once again enjoy the Wood of Caledon.
Trees for Life's Vision