DEAR EDITOR,

After years of inaction and broken promises, which has done untold damage to the forestry industry, and swayed by public opinion, the Department of Agriculture finally gave a commitment to remove this blight from the landscape (the dead ash plantations), something landowners have been crying out for for years.

This is too little too late, as the horse has long since bolted, as evidenced by the number of dead and dying trees on the highways and byways of this country.

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The elephant in the room was the decision to import ash saplings from the continent, where the disease was rampant (thus putting the whole population of ash trees at risk).

When the disease was first discovered in 2012, common sense would dictate that these trees should have been removed to curb the spread of the disease.

However, forestry officials were seemingly unprepared for this eventuality and stymied by rules and regulations, they simply abandoned these plantations, thus allowing diseased trees to spew out their deadly toxins unhindered.

I live adjacent to one of these plantations. In 2020, subtle changes could be seen on some trees such as decreased foliage, gradually until these trees were almost devoid of leaves.

This has spread like wildfire to other trees and is now covering a large area of dead and dying trees.

If, and it looks likely, the ash trees’ days are numbered, it will be the biggest deforestation since man first inhabited this country.