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| Protection for trees from pests and disease held back by 'skills gap' | Protection for trees from pests and disease held back by 'skills gap' |
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| Efforts to protect Britain's trees from diseases and pests such as ash dieback and caterpillars that strip oaks of leaves are being hampered by a "skills gap", a government-appointed taskforce has warned. | Efforts to protect Britain's trees from diseases and pests such as ash dieback and caterpillars that strip oaks of leaves are being hampered by a "skills gap", a government-appointed taskforce has warned. |
| The taskforce, set up in the wake of a fungus that kills ash trees being found across England last year, also called for plant health to be put on a par with animal health, and for the creation of a chief plant health officer akin to the government's chief vet. | |
| "There has been an erosion in the UK and elsewhere of certain crucial field- and research-based expertise necessary to ensure tree health and plant biosecurity," said the taskforce's final report, published on Monday. | "There has been an erosion in the UK and elsewhere of certain crucial field- and research-based expertise necessary to ensure tree health and plant biosecurity," said the taskforce's final report, published on Monday. |
| Prof Chris Gilligan, the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Expert Taskforce's chair and head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, told the Guardian: "We've been complacent for a long time [on the amount of plant experts the UK has], the complacency extends to tree health and also to plant and crop disease more generally." | Prof Chris Gilligan, the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Expert Taskforce's chair and head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, told the Guardian: "We've been complacent for a long time [on the amount of plant experts the UK has], the complacency extends to tree health and also to plant and crop disease more generally." |
| He said the number of people working in this field was in "the tens", and that not enough scientists were being trained. "There are very few people being trained in these relatively important areas, and that is true in the UK and in the EU. Very, very few people are being trained in epidemiology [the study of how disease spreads] in this field." The report called for the government to address the skills gap. | |
| Prof James Brown, president of the British Society of Plant Pathology, has previously said that job losses in plant science were "severe" and that "Britain is not producing graduates with the expertise needed to identify and control plant diseases in our farms and woodlands." Roger Coppock, head of analysts at the Forestry Commission told MPs last year that "the number of plant pathologists is very small." | Prof James Brown, president of the British Society of Plant Pathology, has previously said that job losses in plant science were "severe" and that "Britain is not producing graduates with the expertise needed to identify and control plant diseases in our farms and woodlands." Roger Coppock, head of analysts at the Forestry Commission told MPs last year that "the number of plant pathologists is very small." |
| Gilligan said there was "a need for significantly more investment" into researching tree pests and disease, but that would be offset against the savings of responding to such problems once they had hit. The government is to pay landowners to remove young ash trees to stop the spread of Chalara fraxinea, the fungus that causes ash tree "dieback". | Gilligan said there was "a need for significantly more investment" into researching tree pests and disease, but that would be offset against the savings of responding to such problems once they had hit. The government is to pay landowners to remove young ash trees to stop the spread of Chalara fraxinea, the fungus that causes ash tree "dieback". |
| Proposals are on the table for research councils and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to spend £7.5 extra on tree health and plant biosecurity. | Proposals are on the table for research councils and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to spend £7.5 extra on tree health and plant biosecurity. |
| The taskforce's report also recommends the creation of a single national Plant Health Risk Register, which would put more emphasis on prioritising what pests and diseases to tackle. | The taskforce's report also recommends the creation of a single national Plant Health Risk Register, which would put more emphasis on prioritising what pests and diseases to tackle. |
| Environment secretary, Owen Paterson, said work to implement the register and "procedures to predict, monitor, and control pests and diseases" would start immediately, but he would respond to the report's other recommendations later this summer. He was speaking at the Chelsea Flower Show, where the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) garden features leafless willows to illustrate the threat faced by the UK's trees. | Environment secretary, Owen Paterson, said work to implement the register and "procedures to predict, monitor, and control pests and diseases" would start immediately, but he would respond to the report's other recommendations later this summer. He was speaking at the Chelsea Flower Show, where the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) garden features leafless willows to illustrate the threat faced by the UK's trees. |
| Sue Holden, chief executive at the Woodland Trust, welcomed the report and Paterson's promise on the register, but said more funding was needed if plant health was to reach parity with animal health. "...Last year animal health received 15 times more funding than plant health, so we believe there is still a great deal of work to be done to level the playing field. We hope the government's upcoming spending review will also recognise the scale of the problem and provide Defra with adequate funding and resources not only to put the rest of these important measures in place but to sustain them in the long term," she said. | Sue Holden, chief executive at the Woodland Trust, welcomed the report and Paterson's promise on the register, but said more funding was needed if plant health was to reach parity with animal health. "...Last year animal health received 15 times more funding than plant health, so we believe there is still a great deal of work to be done to level the playing field. We hope the government's upcoming spending review will also recognise the scale of the problem and provide Defra with adequate funding and resources not only to put the rest of these important measures in place but to sustain them in the long term," she said. |
| The report comes just a week after the first cases of ash dieback in the wider environment – outside of nurseries and plantations – was found in Wales. The infected trees in Carmarthenshire are the first confirmed cases in the wild in the west of the UK; the majority of cases in the wider environment are in East Anglia and Kent. | The report comes just a week after the first cases of ash dieback in the wider environment – outside of nurseries and plantations – was found in Wales. The infected trees in Carmarthenshire are the first confirmed cases in the wild in the west of the UK; the majority of cases in the wider environment are in East Anglia and Kent. |
| Gilligan said the spread of the fungus to Wales "concerns me like it would everyone else, but it doesn't surprise me". | Gilligan said the spread of the fungus to Wales "concerns me like it would everyone else, but it doesn't surprise me". |
| Paterson also said the UK was moving to ban imports of sweet chestnut trees from countries where sweet chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) – which has proved fatal for vast swathes of sweet chestnut forests in the eastern US – had taken hold. |