ASH Dieback Disease, which now affects more than a third of England, is likely to have been found in Wellington.

The town’s tree warden, Simon Ratsey, spotted typical symptoms of the fungal infection on a recent visit to the community wood, near Wellington Sports Centre.

Mr Ratsey said that as the disease (Chalara) had already

been found in the Quantock Hills and the Cullompton area it was ‘almost inevitable’ it would appear locally.

He said: “I check the young trees at Moor Wood on a fairly regular basis and many of them are now doing really well.

“Not many ash trees have been planted there but I was saddened to find that clear signs of Ash Dieback have appeared on several of them quite recently.

“Experts at the Tree Health Diagnostic and Advisory Service of the Forestry Commission have studied the photos I sent and say with a fair degree of certainty that they show early-stage infection with Chalara.

“It’s the first report they’ve received of its occurrence in this area. While not being a catastrophe, it means that other ash trees in the area are already infected

and we are likely to see more indications of a rapid spread of the disease.

“I ask members of the public in general, and owners of ash

trees in particular, to look out for signs of the disease and do what they can do avoid spreading it further.”

Advice from the Forestry Commission is that there is little risk of the disease being spread from infected woody material, the fungal spores being released in summer from fruiting bodies on the dead leaf-stalks, to be carried on the wind.

The fungus attacks the young side shoots, and spreads into the main stem, causing an elongated discolouration of the bark above and below the shoot, orange-brown rather than the green of a healthy stem.

If left, the disease causes the bark to split, causing lesions which may be invaded by other fungi. Not all infected trees die.

If the dead leaves from the diseased trees can be cleared away and burned or composted, this breaks the life cycle of the fungus.

Further information may be found on the Forestry Commission’s web pages www.forestry.gov.

uk/chalara