TREE KILLER

Forestry Commission staff in the district have been told to keep a lookout for a powerful pathogen that attacks oak and beech trees.

It is even more aggressive than the so-called Sudden Oak Death, which has already sparked a full-scale alert in the Forest.

As reported in the Daily Echo, garden centres, nurseries and landowners have been told to examine their plants for signs of the fungal infection.

The new disease, Phytophthora Kernovii, has been found in Cornwall.

Its discovery has raised fears about the pathogen's potential impact on Britain's 200 million oak trees and other native species that could prove vulnerable.

If the disease spreads to the New Forest, affected trees will have to be felled and burned.

The Forestry Commission's head of plant health, Rod Burgess, said the organisation was doing everything it could to protect the area.

He said: "Action is focused mainly in Cornwall, where we're attempting to eradicate the disease by destroying infected plants and any potential hosts.

"We're hoping to protect not only the New Forest but the whole of the country.

"The disease has not been found anywhere else and therefore has no track record - which means we don't know what it could do.

"It hasn't killed anything yet, but we believe tree deaths are inevitable if the disease is left to its own devices."

Rhododendrons are the main host and source of the infection, which is thought to be spread by mist.

The Forest has a huge number of rhododendron plants, including the famous collection at Exbury Gardens, near Beaulieu, where gardeners have been briefed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Asked if the disease could devastate parts of the Forest Mr Burgess said: "Potentially yes - but we are not about to let that happen."

A Forestry Commission spokesman at Lyndhurst said: "Surveys have been carried out across the Forest and so far we've been given a clean bill of health. But surveys will be

carried out at set periods as long as the threat remains.

"If we are unlucky enough to get it, the likelihood is that affected trees will be felled and burned, depending on the advice we receive from the government and Forestry Research."

Images of the symptoms of the disease are available on the Forestry Commission website: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/planthealth

Anyone who sees signs of the disease should contact Defra at: www.defra.gov.uk

FACTFILE:

The new pathogen was first discovered in a wood near Redruth, Cornwall, earlier this year.

It has not been found anywhere else in the world and is so new it has yet to be given a formal scientific name.

But Clive Brassier, the tree pathologist who first discovered the disease, has dubbed it Kernovii - the ancient name for Cornwall. It has since been found on 30 beech trees and two English oaks, and a further two oaks being investigated

All finds so far have been in woods that are dominated by rhododendron, a plant common in the New Forest.