larchmaggedon

This is a view I never wanted to see. Our village was surrounded by conifer plantations and mixed deciduous woods. Suddenly we have a new view of the village through the woods especially at night driving home. This is because the larch trees have been cut down. They are the host of a fungus, phytophthorum ramorum (see link), that has suddenly become rampant and is killing trees. It is a threat to our native oak, and the removal of larch is part of a scorched earth policy to prevent its spread. Unfortunately we are also at the beginning of an epidemic of fungal disease in our ash trees. We have lost 90% of all our elms, and there are threats to horse chestnuts and other trees (see link). Perhaps mother Earth is trying to shrug us off, or maybe we should stop importing all foreign plant species just to make money.