Advertisement

Ash Dieback breakout in the Borders

A tree health officer is being employed in the Scottish Borders to record cases of Ash Dieback, a deadly disease. The Forestry Commission hope to use land surveys to shape policy on how to deal with the spread of the disease.

View all 3 updates ›

Tree Health Officer brought in to target Ash Dieback

Steve Morgan has been tasked with recording instances of Ash Dieback in the region. Credit: ITV Border

A tree health officer is being employed in the Scottish Borders to record cases of a deadly disease.

Steve Morgan has been tasked with recording instances of Ash Dieback in the region.

The Forestry Commission hope to use land surveys to shape policy on how to deal with the spread of the disease.

It was first discovered in the UK in 2012 but Steve Morgan says it's currently unclear how widespread it is.

What we are finding with the surveys so far is that there is no rhyme nor reason or logic to the disease in terms of levels of infection, how many trees are infected in a stand.

We simply don't know how widespread it is yet, and how the disease is going to progress. In Europe it can hit some of the stands and really hit them quite severely. We are in a very infancy stage. We are in a research stage of finding out".

– Steve Morgan, tree health officer
  1. Read more
  2. 3 updates
Ash Dieback breakout in the Borders

More top news