Tears for our Weeping Ash Tree
For over 10 years, Ash dieback disease has been ripping through the UK’s stock of European Ash trees and is having a devastating impact on landscapes and habitats.
Caused by a fungus that attacks the tree’s internal water transport system, it means the tree slowly withers and dies. The external signs of the disease are an inexorable thinning of the canopy, leaf discolouration and sticky lesions on the shoots and branches.
Hedgemead Park contains a large specimen Ash tree located in the central zone, near the park’s bandstand. This is a variety called Weeping Ash, which has a characteristic pendulous habit and weirdly contorted limbs branching off the main trunk. Our tree has a very distinctive and quirky presence but, in common with so many other Ash trees, it is badly afflicted with Ash dieback.
Last week we received the sad news that we’ve been expecting for some time, that the tree is soon to be felled. The Council’s tree team judge that it has passed a threshold in the progression of the disease and, for reasons of safety, needs to be removed. So, another of our park’s venerable trees (it’s well over 100 years old) is to be lost
On a happier note, the Council has promised a replacement as part of its tree planting programme. As there will be a huge gap to fill in such a prominent position, the Friends will ask if we can have a say in what comes next and where.
In other tree news, the tree team will be attending to a number of tasks in the park this Autumn, including pollarding the Lime trees along the bandstand walk. One has already had a severe haircut, the others will receive the same treatment later in the season.
