Oak forests at risk from ‘killer tree fungus’

OAK forests in the south-east are at risk, a Co Waterford senator warned yesterday amid concerns of a “killer tree fungus” heading to Ireland.

Fine Gael’s Senator Paudie Coffey claimed the risk of Sudden Oak Death had fallen on “deaf ears in Government”.

He said Ireland is dangerously exposed to the disease.

The party’s Seanad spokesman on the environment said he had tried to highlight the problem over a month ago. The disease is related to potato blight.

In a major outbreak in southern England and Wales, ancient trees were infected and died after being “poisoned by a black fluid”, according to Senator Coffey last night.

“Sudden Oak Death not only affects oak trees but also conifers and rhododendrons.

“This killer fungus could do more damage to our landscape than Dutch Elm disease, with gardens also under threat.”

He said: “In July, I wanted to raise the threat of Sudden Oak Death as an urgent issue in the Seanad but the Government does not believe anything happens during the summer break when the Oireachtas is on a 12-week holiday.

“The fungus spreads on the roots of popular shrubs like rhododendrons and viburnum [and] as these are imported here by plant nurseries; I urged garden centres to be vigilant.

“As I feared, the Department of Agriculture recently confirmed the fungus had been found in Waterford and Tipperary and, as I warned, it arrived here in the rootstock of imported larch trees.”

Senator Coffey called for a campaign where the authorities encouraged hikers who walk in woodland to keep their boots clean.

“The advice being given is not to take mud into forest areas and not to bring it out – it’s the middle of the tourist season here but our Government has been deafeningly silent on the matter.

“It’s deeply worrying that the first outbreak should hit the south-east region, which has some of Europe’s finest arboretums with great potential for promoting specialist tourism.

“My warning last month gave us four precious weeks to prepare for this challenge – four weeks to mobilise garden centres and plant nurseries and to alert the public to the risk. Those four weeks were thrown away... yet again the country blunders unprepared into a foreseeable crisis.

“There is a pressing need to preserve the oak forest around Portlaw, in the Nire Valley and at Lismore and Dromana on the Blackwater, which is highlighted in Waterford County Council’s Biodiversity Action Plan.”