More public awareness and new laws are needed to protect Brighton and Hove’s elm trees, according to a national expert.
Peter Bourne, the volunteer curator for the Brighton and Hove-based National Elm Collection, spoke about the issues facing the city’s 17,000 elm trees at a meeting called by Green councillor Kerry Pickett.
Councillor Pickett brought together a group of experts and organisers of the Brighton and Hove Tree festival in an attempt to find more ways to protect the increasingly rare elms.
A few varieties of the 17,000 elms in Brighton and Hove are the only remaining examples of their species, Mr Bourne said at the meeting in Hove Town Hall today (Thursday 29 August).
One of the biggest issues threatening elm trees is infected logs and wood, still with their bark, being brought into the area with the bark beetles that spread elm disease, which is caused by a micro-fungus.
Mr Bourne said that he had seen beetles on trains and buses but also spread when infected trees were felled but the logs were not moved away. He also spoke about infected wood being brought here as fuel for wood-burning stoves.
He said: “What we are trying to do is stop the selling of logs to any control area, not just here but across the United Kingdom.
“Other places have the same issue. The Isle of Man had two imports reported because people bought the timber and imported it with bark on.
“The same happened in Edinburgh where two cases were reported because timber was brought in with the bark on and the city lost trees because of it.”
In Hove, a diseased tree felled on private land was not stripped of bark quickly enough and resulted in 15 infections around the area.
Brighton and Hove City Council is removing diseased trees effectively, but if the disease continues to spread without more action through public awareness, Mr Bourne fears that the council will face a £39 million bill for tree felling, stump removal and replacement planting.
Brighton Pavilion MP Siân Berry said that she would try to secure legislation known as a “statutory instrument” – a law that does not require extensive debate – to restrict bark-covered elm logs being transported into protected areas.
Many of Brighton and Hove’s elms are in Ms Berry’s constituency, with concentrations at The Level and in Preston Park. The latter was home to the ancient “twins”, although only one now survives. They were thought to be the oldest and largest English elm left in Europe.
Ms Berry said that she would submit a written question to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) asking how to move forward with a new law.
She said: “I’m very aware of the sites and have spent time at the Wood Store with people who know.
“I’ll be interested to know if the council has produced communications, a leaflet. There may be stocks of them.
“There are simple things we need to get people to think if they’re getting wood, if it’s elm wood.
“We need to know the baseline for knowledge about elm in the city.”
Penny Hudd, from CPRE, formerly the Campaign to Protect Rural England, asked Councillor Pickett to bring the council communications team on board to inform the public about the risk of bringing elm logs into the area.
She said: “People want to help. They genuinely don’t want to see the trees go.
“They want to help. They want to do the right thing but possibly they don’t know what that is.”
There are currently noticeboards at three routes into Brighton and Hove publicising the risk of spreading elm disease.
Councillor Pickett said that she hoped to bring the council on board with a wider awareness project to find ways to protect the at-risk trees.
