We hope the situation is not too stressful, and wish you all the best in dealing with your P. Ramorum outbreak.

Warm regards,

Take Cover team

We feel rather aggrieved at the tone of the press releases stating that we have been served with enforcement notices as if we were responsible for this outbreak and somehow in the wrong.
We could take no steps to prevent this disease which is mainly airborne, have done nothing wrong and have at every point done everything we can to assist the forestry commission.

The ‘package of assistance’ that the commission have announced is £300 per hectare which we are not receiving or going to receive. If you have knowledge of tree felling you will appreciate that in a situation where stringent biosecurity measures have to be used and the trees have to be felled and brashed by hand that is a paltry sum, even in the highly unlikely event that you receive it.

I am deeply concerned about this situation. If the commission wishes landowners to report Phytopthora Ramorum and control it, in order to protect commercial forestry, then realistic support needs to be in place. Many landowners faced with a the prospect of funding felling and site clearance work themselves with the attendant stress and unpleasantness, are likely to ignore the disease and not report it.

To us this is the permanent loss of our winter pig grazing shelter. It is the expense of in the region of two months of my total personal income. It is unwarranted worry and stigmatisation. Many landowners simply will not play ball facing those concerns.

If the forestry commision is to have any realistic chance of controlling this disease then proper support is essential. Ideally this would be the forestry commission carrying out the work themselves or by using cobtractors and the cost being defrayed by the commercial forestry owners whose interests we are protecting.

THat will make landowners far more likely to support the iniative.

All species of trees are now more vulnerable to disease, pests, fungi and wind because they are being damaged by exposure to toxic ozone in the atmosphere. It’s like AIDS for trees. Pneumonia may be the proximate reason a victim dies. But it’s only lethal because the person has AIDS.

Duh.

Regards

Take Cover team

Someone just showed me a glimpse of data for redwood trees, not just suggesting, but showing that more wood growth is occuring in recent decades compared to past centuries.

That was a good surprise to hear.

MDV / Oregon

It’s crossed my thoughts lately that our culure here should invest more labor in parks.

Planting trees fits that theme and benefits.

MDV
Oregon

I’ve planted fruit trees and eaten fruit like apples from them, in as little as 3 years. And I’m still breathing.

MDV
Oregon

i was responding to Deane of forestpolicy”research” and his Quixotic suggestion that mitigation by mangroves of the tsunami is invalidated by rhetorical jibes like “who benefits from such analysis?”. Unfortunately, i totally buggered the force of my argument by not specifying the object of my criticism: The well-meaning spew from one Deane of forestpolicyresearch.org. Im continually stunned in my dealings with justifiably passionate souls by the prevalence of the belief that disagreement per se is prima facie evidence of bias. Still, I categorically reject the alluring hypothesis that Deane and is ilk are just being jerks. So check it out: this leaves a far more interesting and parsimonious hypothesis, that we have a hardwire issue at play here: ALL of us given circumstances of sufficient emotional investment in our everyday life can (nay, often do) respond just as our dear colleague Deane has, with the certainty that those who disagree must in principle be wrong. This should give us all pause as we scan the news channels tonight. The original empirical issue, of whether mangroves mitigated impacts of the 2004 tsunami, remains unaddressed.

We will appreciate to be informed of any developement in the area of alternative energy and energy saving cookers.

Austin

I am a tree surgeon working in Cambridgeshire, and was wondering if there are any useful links or contacts you may have to lead me toward some work in this area? Is there anyone you may be able to put me into contact with who could help me?

Speculative request, but you never know….

Many Thanks.

Simon.