Trees to be felled as fungus found

The first case of the tree disease ash dieback has been confirmed on a Devon Wildlife Trust site on Dartmoor.

The charity, which manages 50 nature reserves covering 4,800 acres in Devon, said there was evidence that it had reached at least four other sites in the county.

Confirming the presence of the Chalara fraxinea fungus that causes ash dieback, on the Dunsdon nature reserve near Holsworthy, it said trees with symptoms had also been found at Halsdon on the Torridge; Meeth quarry, Okehampton; Dunsford in the Teign Valley and The Rough, Honiton.

Matt Boydell from the trust said “any large diseased trees posing a risk to the public will have to be felled”.

Ash dieback was first identified in Poland in 1992 and kills the leaves, then the branches, trunk and eventually the whole tree. It is said to have the potential to destroy 95 per cent of ash trees in the UK.