Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what, if any, was the policy for planting new trees after the losses caused by Dutch elm disease.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The National Tree Planting Year of 1973, with its slogan of Plant a tree in ’73, was the Government-sponsored tree planting campaign initiated to compensate for the loss of trees caused by Dutch elm disease. The Forestry Commission donated some 90,000 trees to schools and a further 70,000 for joint projects with local authorities, as did other organisations including the Crown Estate Commissioners.
It also led to the founding of the Tree Council, with Government backing, as the umbrella body for organisations involved in tree planting, care and conservation.
The Forestry Commission has an ongoing programme of grants schemes available for planting, subject to specific criteria and subject to an obligation to manage woodlands with sound forestry practice.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to develop a strain of English elm which is resistant to Dutch elm disease; and what success they have had.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
English Elm (a form of Ulmus minor) is not a native tree and was likely introduced to Britain from Italy by the Romans. The most successful breeding programmes for resistant elms currently operate in Italy, Spain and North America. Resistant elm cultivars have been available for some time, including a series of cultivars of U. minor produced by the Spanish elm breeding programme which show high resistance to Dutch elm disease. Trials of resistant elms in the UK were initiated in Hampshire in 2000. The most recent report from these trials was produced by Butterfly Conservation this year.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons were learnt as a result of the loss of English elm trees as a result of Dutch elm disease; and whether those lessons are being applied to ash dieback.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Safeguarding plant health remains one of Defra’s top priorities. The full findings from Government funded research into the lessons learned from the UK Dutch elm disease outbreak were published by Imperial College in 2011 and an independent taskforce on Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity was convened after the arrival of ash dieback in 2012. The Government has implemented all of the recommendations of the taskforce, including appointment of the Chief Plant Health Officer, development of a prioritised risk register, strengthened border security, import regulations and governance arrangements.
The Tree Health Resilience Strategy - the first major publication to come out of the 25-Year Environment Plan sets out a new proactive approach to tree health, with landowners, charities, the public and government working together to take actions to build resilience against pests and diseases to protect the nation’s trees.
Asked by: Lord Harries of Pentregarth (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of evidence that bees are harmed by the use of neonicotinoids, what plans they have to restrict the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Decisions on the approval of pesticide active substances are made at European level. Since December 2013, three of the five neonicotinoids currently approved are not permitted for use on a wide range of crops considered “attractive to bees”. A number of other uses remain permitted under the EU approval. The restrictions currently in place for neonicotinoids are not time-limited.