Official Tree Planting for the Royal Society of Biology’s BIOLOGY WEEK at Brightlingsea, Essex

On Friday 11th October British Naturalists’ Association Essex Branch will be supporting BIOLOGY WEEK by a joint official tree planting with the Brightlingsea Town Council at the Lozenge Nature Area,in Lower Park Road in Brightlingsea,CO7 0LG.

The Mayor, Cllr Graham Steady will be joined by the British Naturalists’ Association’s President & Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Roger Tabor at 2.30pm at the Nature Area where they will plant 2 Ash Trees & a Sweet Chestnut, to encourage the planting of trees and care of the natural environment to help counter global warming.

The Ash saplings are both locally grown (Brightlingsea seed & grown) to support the maintenance of genetic diversity of the species that may help the survival of the tree in the UK. Roger Tabor said: “Ash dieback disease was first detected in the UK as recently as 2012 & the most hit area is the SE of England which stemmed largely from plants that were imported into the UK from infected stock in Europe. The disease is caused by a fungus that travelled from the Far East. Consequently a key thing to do to try and combat the disease is to plant from disease free local native stock, locally grown. Unfortunately it is a huge task to ahead to retain the Ash population as the fungal spores are wind dispearsed. The message is to really plant local & tighten import controls. Among our native grown population we hope will emerge strains of trees that have a resistance to the fungal attack”.

“The planting of a Sweet Chestnut,” Roger commented, “although not native, it has a historic connection to this area as it appears the Roman introduced it locally in the Brightlingsea/Colchester area around 2,000 years ago, seemingly ahead of its introduction to much of the UK. It is one of the commonest encountered coppiced trees in many historic & ancient woods that have been managed across the centuries. It prolifically produces edible nuts which will encourage future youngsters & adults to gain a familiarity with the tree, and managing it going forward by coppicing will demonstrate this historic management technique to schools & others that use the Lozenge Nature Area in the town of Brightlingsea”.

Event open to all, & is Free.