Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the main threats to the health of beech trees in England.

The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our approach for managing the pressures on our trees. This includes climate change, high populations of squirrels and deer, and certain pests and diseases:

• There are ten pests on the UK Plant Health Risk Register which list Fagus as a major host, including several species of Phytophthora, wood boring beetles and moths. There are a total of 53 pests which pose a threat to broadleaved trees in general, and it is likely that some of these pests will also have Fagus as a host.

• Beech trees are susceptible to grazing by deer and bark stripping by squirrels, which can leave the tree vulnerable to infection.

• The Forestry Commission assessed the likely impacts of climate change on existing beech woodland in its 2012 Adaptation Reporting Power report. This concluded that beech may become increasingly challenged in the south and east on lighter and/or thinner soils.