Diseased trees spark fears for others in area (From Ledbury Reporter)

Diseased trees spark fears for others in area

12:00pm Friday 15th March 2013 in News By Gary Bills-Geddes

UNEXPECTEDLY diseased sycamores and one oak at a local beauty spot have raised health and safety concerns for others.

The mature trees on the edge of Dog Hill Wood looked healthy enough, but when a number were felled by a contractor, as part of necessary coppicing work, they were found to have “excessive rot at the centre” and fungal infections.

The fear is now that other trees there might be the same.

Town councillors have been shown a cross-section of one of the felled sycamores, and have decided to commission a tree survey for the wood, and also for Ledbury Cemetery, off New Street.

Deputy clerk Diane Baldwin explained no diseased trees had been found at the cemetery but the work would be carried out as a precaution.

She could not put a figure on how many trees would be surveyed at Dog Hill Wood, but said they would be “mature trees, at the pathways and the perimeters”.

The wood, which features a section of the old pack horse lane to Worcester, is a popular spot for ramblers and dog walkers.

The Forestry Consultancy, BJ Unwin, will be asked to carry out a survey of the trees in both the cemetery and Dog Hill Wood, and the work will costthe town council £780.

The firm has carried out work for the town council in the past, by surveying six mature lime trees on the Recreation Ground in 2011.

There were fears then that these trees were diseased, but it proved not to be the case.