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WHY DON’T WE LEARN?

pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,586
in Plants
Dutch elm disease was brought into this country by human beings. Result? 25 million trees in the UK in the 1960s reduced to about one hundred today.

And now we have ash dieback, again brought in by human beings.

Are we really as stupid as we appear to be?
Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
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  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 9,076
    It does make you wonder why ash trees needed to be imported given they're easy to grow and not especially ornamental.
    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 13,282
    Yes, we are, and we never learn.
    How often to we see in threads on here, people transporting plants between countries.
    There are ashtrays of emulsion,
    for the fag ends of the aristocracy.

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 6,459
    edited May 2019
    I wonder how that cost is calculated? The loss could be catastrophic in biodiversity terms, but in cash money? Is that for treatment/felling/disposal?

    I'm too young to remember having seen an elm tree in the wild - only in photos and paintings :/ How sad if future generations say the same about ash trees, or olives, or larch
    “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first” 
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,143
    I had about 6 elm trees in my garden but 4 had to come down last year due to Dutch elm disease. The remaining two look in good health but the tree surgeon was not optimistic.
    Rutland, England
  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,586
    Well midear, it’s like this.
    A tree falls on yer ‘ed, you sue the council, doncha? So to prevent the tree from fallin’ on yer ‘ed, they chop it down. Who chops it down? Yer council? Who pays for yer council? You do.
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489
    Council had to cut down a diseased elm in the wood behind the house and last year a diseased ash was cut down. It looks as though there are more diseased ash trees there.
    SW Scotland
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 6,459
    According to our neighbour farmer, there's an elm tree growing down the lane, but I'm not sure which tree it is. He reckons it'll be dead within a couple of years but apparently they do keep popping up, he says. They live for 5 or so years, then succumb to DED
    “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first” 
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 16,538
    We had a listed elm in between the two oak trees (Well it is still marked on the TPO map) It was taken out by crane over the houses that were built very close to it, some 30 years ago. I watched the huge stump rot away, bit by bit. Weirdly the hedge that it was in has sprouted a load of elm shoots. I don't know if theses are seedlings or from the rootstock. Will it survive? Have all the vectors for dutch elm disease gone? Should I take hardwood cuttings next winter?
  • micearguersmicearguers Posts: 605
    I wonder how much of this is due to the lack of genetic diversity. Many trees are produced in large quantities by clonal propagation. Or do Dutch Elm disease and Ash dieback cast a wide net and kill nearly everything they encounter anyway?
  • FireFire Posts: 17,116
    @raisingirl I didn't know DED was still about here. There are widespread elm projects reintroducing to the UK.
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