Woodland owners of Britain

[Peter Smallidge]

I thought a discussion of woodland owners in G.B. was interesting (here).  The article give a brief profile of a few owners, why they bought their land, what they plan, and the arrangements of ownership. It seems there is some concern in that region about a fungus that is killing the ash trees, which they call "ash decline."  This seems to be different from what we know as "ash decline" in NY and the Northeast.  "Decline" is a general term that could be applied to any complex arrangement of host and pathogen(s).  I noted that some of the owners had purchased just the shooting and fishing rights on property, and that others were focused on wood for fuel, using plantations.  Overall, an interesting casual read.

[Rebecca Hargrave]

That is a fascinating article. Imagine- intensely managing 2-3 acres of ash! And, maybe even making a living at it.

On a side note, often our ash "decline" is the result of white ash seeding into wet/poor soils. They grow fine for a while, but once the roots start to hit too much moisture (for example) the trees begin to die off. Often, this doesn't happen until they are good sized. So, sometimes ash decline comes without any primary fungus or insect, but with soils.