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Written question asked by Roger Williams (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 16 July 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 July 2008. It was answered by Joan Ruddock (Labour) on Tuesday, 22 July 2008 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Trees: Diseases

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the incidence of (a) bleeding canker in horse chestnut trees, (b) sudden oak death, (c) oak processionary moth and (d) defoliation of horse chestnuts by the leaf-mining caterpillar cameraria ohridella in the last 12 months.
Answer

Information and survey reports on all of these pests have been published on the Forestry Commission website.A survey of horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) in Great Britain was undertaken between June and August 2007. This was to provide information, based on visual assessment of symptoms, on the likely incidence and severity of the disease known as Horse Chestnut Bleeding Canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pathovar aesculi. I will arrange for a copy of the survey report to be placed in the Library of the House.In 2004, the Forestry Commission carried out a major survey of woodlands in Great Britain to determine whether there was any evidence of the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, referred to in the USA as 'Sudden Oak Death'. Further surveys have been carried out each year and since. I will arrange for a copy of the Report on the Forestry Commission Re-Survey of Woodlands 2007 to Assess the Level of Incidence of Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora kernoviae in woodlands in England and Wales to be placed in the Library of the House.The Oak Processionary Moth was first found in London in 2006. I will arrange for a copy of the Report on survey for Oak Processionary Moth Thaumetopoea processionea (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Thaumetopoeidae) (OPM) in London in 2007 to be placed in the Library of the House. Surveys this year suggest that the outbreak area has not expanded and in many locations, the numbers of new nests has been significantly reduced.Cameraria ohridella, the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner, was first detected in Wimbledon in 2002. Since then, it has continued to spread outwards and is now found as far north as South Yorkshire and in East Anglia and parts of Wales.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
220461; 479 c1024-5W;479 c1022-3W
Session
2007-08
Related items
Deposited Paper DEP2008-2068
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects
Diseases Trees
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk