TIMBER! 10 million larch trees face chop to stop disease

MORE than ten million larch trees are to be felled in an effort to stop a deadly tree disease spreading in Scotland.

Every larch in woodlands in south-west Scotland run by quango Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) will be cut down as part of drastic measures to tackle Phytophthora ramorum.

The microscopic fungal-like pathogen – which was first found in Scottish trees in 2010 – causes withered leaves and black ‘bleeding’ from the trunk before the tree dies.

Ramorum disease can kill 150 species of plants but larch trees, pictured, which are often grown in plantations for timber, have been worst affected.

Millions have already been killed or cut down after being infected, or to control the spread of the incurable disease in high-risk areas. But FLS is hoping that a more extensive felling programme will help prevent the pathogen moving to other parts of Scotland, and give the larch a ‘fighting chance’ of survival.

The agency is currently around halfway through the programme. The work will also involve planting replacement trees, which will be from other species.

Graeme Prest, FLS director of land management and regions, said: ‘This new approach allows us to get more on the front foot and build disease management into our annual felling programmes, making the effort to tackle the disease more cost efficient, manageable and sustainable. It is all part of the process of adapting the forests to be more resilient for the increasing threats from pests and climate change.’

The Phytophthora ramorum pathogen is related to the potato blight organism blamed for the Irish famine.