Ash dieback is killing trees that inspired Potter and Constable

THIS year has been the worst for ash dieback, the National Trust has said, as it revealed trees that inspired Constable and Beatrix Potter were at risk.

Climate change is making the trees weaker and more susceptible to disease, and 10 times more ash trees than usual had to be felled this year. The conservation charity said it faced its worst year on record for felling trees due to ash dieback, in part because of one of the warmest and driest springs on record.

Warm springs are becoming more common, putting trees under stress and making them more susceptible to disease, speeding up the impact of ash dieback. Lockdown also meant that ranger teams, which carry out felling and maintenance work, could not do so – leaving them playing catch-up now and diverting resources from other work.

While the National Trust has been felling about 4,000-5,000 trees a year in recent years, largely as a result of ash dieback, this year it faces having to cut down about 40,000 trees, with a bill of £2 million. This has put at risk trees on Troutbeck Park farm near Ambleside, which Beatrix Potter managed and inspired many of her stories including the Fairy Caravan series. The disease is also threatening the ash trees at High Oxen Fell, which the author gifted to the National Trust.

Ash dieback is caused by a fungus from Asia which was first recorded in the UK in 2012. It blocks the tree’s water systems and causes leaves to wilt, shoots to die back and lesions on branches, before eventually killing it.

Woodlands around the home of the painter John Constable, in Flatford, Suffolk, are also under threat, while dozens of trees will have to be felled this year in Borrowdale in the Lake District, which the artist travelled to paint.

Luke Barley, National Trust tree and woodland adviser, said: “Ash trees like those at Troutbeck Park Farm are some of our most culturally significant trees and have stood for hundreds of years but will now be lost forever.”