Devon County Council will remove around 175 trees infected with Ash dieback from alongside the A386 near Tavistock this month (January).
The trees need to be removed for safety reasons, with work expected to take 10 days to complete.
Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management, said: “It’s vital that we carry out this work to ensure that public safety is maintained on our roads. Trees infected with Ash dieback are at risk of collapse so we need to carry out this work as soon as possible. Every effort will be made to keep the disruption to a minimum.”
Councillor Philip Sanders, County Councillor for Yelverton Rural, added: “It is very sad that so many trees will be lost in this picturesque area but sadly for safety reasons they have to removed having contracted the Ash dieback disease.”
Devon County Council’s “My tree, my responsibility” campaign, supported by the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum, aims to inform owners of trees to look out for signs of the fungal tree disease and to take any appropriate action in order to maintain public safety.
The Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum was established by Devon County Council in 2016 to consider the long-term approach to tackling the disease.
The County Council is committed to replacing trees lost through Ash dieback. It has adopted a 3-2-1 tree replacement principle, where three saplings will be planted for each mature tree it fells due to Ash dieback, two saplings will replace a semi-mature tree, and one new sapling will be planted for each ash sapling lost.
In October last year, Paul Binks – highways asset manager at Lancashire County Council – discussed the local authority’s battle against ash dieback in an article for LCRIG.