The end of oak trees in England?

It was used in the ships that won the battle of Trafalgar and is an enduring stalwart of the English countryside. Its very name — Quercus robur — means ‘strength’. But the English oak has an Achilles heel. It’s succumbing to ‘acute oak decline’ — a disease that’s sweeping across the UK from the south-east. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has made available a grant of £1 million to investigate this poorly understood disease that produces lesions within the trunk that kill the tree by blocking its supply of water and nutrients. The University of Reading are studying acute oak decline to see among other things if it’s related to climate change or alterations in the soil. My colleague Charlotte Worrall and I spoke to Dr Rob Jackson at Reading about the research project, as well as to Bill Swan, Deputy Manager at Bushy Park, and Richard Barnes from the Woodland Trust. Here is the film we made about this worrying disease.