Shoots of hope for Britain’s cherished ash trees

The ashes are fighting against a disease that has ravaged the British campaign, according to new scientific evidence.

When the depery of ashes arrived in 2012, predictions suggested that up to 85% of ashes could be lost.

But now scientists have discovered that the woods of the ashes naturally evolve greater resistance to infection.

The discovery offers a renewed hope that the highly appreciated trees will survive in the British landscape.

“It is the hope born of the death of many trees,” said Professor Richard Buggs of the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew and Queen Mary University in London.

But he said that other interventions would be necessary to lend a hand to ashes, such as the protection of trees against pasture and the selection of the most resilient trees for future planting diagrams.

“We have a new motivation to take care of our ash populations, to protect them from other problems such as deer navigation and let nature follow its course and evolve the trees with more resistance,” he told BBC News.

The Dreback Ash fungus is from Asia and was initiated into Europe about 30 years ago.

The study of ashes in a Surrey forest has revealed subtle discrepancies over time in different genes, which should help new young trees to retaliate.

Trees evolve greater resistance to disease than their predecessors – an example of Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory in action.

Richard Nichols, professor of evolutionary genetics at Queen Mary University of London, said that a “tragedy for trees was a revelation for scientists: allowing us to show that thousands of genes contribute to the response of ashes against the fungus”.

The decline of ashes shows how devastating pathogens introduced can be for our trees and the species that count on them, said Rebecca Gosling of Woodland Trust.

“The results highlight how vital it is to support natural regeneration in the woods, promoting our understanding of the best way to manage our ash woods,” she said.

Scientists feared that the ashes will follow the path of the elm, which was almost wiped out by the Dutch disease of the elm.

The loss of the native tree would have a devastating effect on biodiversity as well as the modification of the face of the landscape.