Chalara

[WorkingMummy]

Any arborists out there?

The beautiful weeping ash tree on the boundary of my garden, has die back.

Is it Chalara?

Had a tree surgeon round who scratched his head and said, "Is it an ash?" Ultimately, he couldn't answer his own question.

Love that weeping ash (or pagoda). Hoping not to lose it.

[Annette Curtain]

Sadly it will probably die

Be brave and get it out of the garden, sooner rather than later

[Burbage]

First thing would be to report it to the council (number at the bottom of this page). They do have a tree officer and, contrary to the impression that may have been given by recent threads on this forum, knows a lot about trees and more than most about Chalara.

If you want to be sure, there's information on how to distinguish Chalara here. There's also a form/app for reporting it. They are still researching the spread of the disease, so any reports they get will be helpful.

I believe movement restrictions are still in force so, if it is Chalara, the best thing after reporting it is to leave it alone. Some trees do seem to recover, and even if it doesn't, it seems that taking it to bits or moving it would increase the risk of the disease spreading.

[Lilly Potes]

The risk of the disease spreading is that bad ! How many are working now are they a lot.

Shouldn't worry if they are doing well good for them I will support. I just saw someone ready for party !

quite obvious sometimes lets just laugh :) But They are all over the place the disease is not only in ED

but Clapham, Batersea, \Chelsea, Wansworth Lewisham, Greenwich and other places. Who cares !

[WorkingMummy]

Yes very helpful thanks.

It has been reported. It's in a conservation area, so we need the council's permission even to cut it back, let alone fell it. The council have requested photos and a tree survey, which will be done.

However, having done some more research on identifying the tree, I think the tree surgeon is right. It looks a lot like a weeping ash, but it does not have black buds at the end of its branches, and the leaflets do not appear in directly opposite pairs. They are very slightly staggered if you look closely. Plus it flowers very late in the summer. It has not flowered yet this year, when all the ash trees around are covered in seed already. I think it is in fact a pagoda.

In which case, going to go with surgeon's advice that this is ordinary die back, probably caused by the weird spring we had, and just have it pruned.

I expect the council will come and take a look, as we've applied to prune this tree before and I'm pretty sure the surgeon always called it an "ash" on the relevant forms.

[PeckhamRose]

The council has a very good Arborist or whatever the profession is called, who has just helped us save some trees from being way over pruned by the scissor happy tree surgeons. His surname is Gonzales and I would recommend you seek him out via the council website if you can, or just phone the council to ask to be put through to his line.