A wildlife trust is set to spend over £1 million tackling a deadly pandemic in trees.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has revealed it is facing a bill of more than £1 million to tackle the impact of ash dieback disease, which is infecting millions of trees across the UK.

The Trust has had to make the drastic decision to remove thousands of ash trees across its nature reserves in areas where falling dead branches pose a significant risk to the public, buildings or road users – in line with government guidance.

Read more: Police make £1.6m drug bust at cannabis factory

As the UK marks the tenth anniversary of ash dieback disease arriving in the country this year, the Trust is now launching a major fundraising appeal to help it cover the cost of tackling it.

Chief Executive of BBOWT Estelle Bailey said: “To all of the visitors who come to our reserves, we want to say thank you.

“We know this work can look drastic, and we are grateful for your understanding and your patience while we tackle this terrible disease.

“As we launch our ash dieback fundraising appeal, we also want to thank everyone who is able to spare any amount to help us.

“We are in the midst of a nature and climate crisis, and sadly ash dieback is a part of that.

As BBOWT manages more than 80 nature reserves which are open to the public, and the disease is now present at more than three quarters of those reserves, it has required a huge operation to manage the effects of the disease to protect wildlife and people.

Mark Vallance, BBOWT Senior Land Manager and lead officer for managing ash dieback, said: “As a wildlife trust, this is one of the most heartbreaking projects we have ever undertaken.

“However, it is absolutely vital we ensure everyone who visits our nature reserves – whether the general public, BBOWT staff or volunteers – continues to have safe access to these beautiful and beloved sites, and we have carried out all of this work in the most sensitive way possible.

“Like many ecologists, we are hopeful that some trees will prove to have natural resilience to the disease and can seed future generations that might one day restore our population of ash trees.

“In the meantime, we thank everyone for their understanding as we continue to do everything we can to mitigate the effects of this devastating disease.”

So far, BBOWT has spent £360,000 on tackling ash dieback disease since 2019.

The money is spent on hiring specialist contractors, who have already safely removed thousands of trees.

 

Read more from this author

This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1

A message from our Editor

Thank you for reading this story and supporting the Oxford Mail.

If you like what we do please consider getting a subscription for the Oxford Mail and in return we’ll give you unrestricted access with less adverts across our website from the latest news, investigations, features, and sport.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok for more. 

You can also join the conversation in our Facebook groups: stay ahead of traffic alerts here, keep up to date with the latest from court here, share your favourite memories of Oxford here, get your daily dose of celebrity news here and take some time out with news that will make you smile. 

If you’ve got a story for our reporters, send us your news here. You can also list an event for free here.