It has been ten years since the fungal disease Ash Dieback was first detected in England, and here Louise Hill describes the origins and impact of Ash Dieback, and what the response to this disease has been in Britain.
Ten years ago, the UK was faced with a plant health emergency of a sort we had never experienced before. Ash Dieback, a little-understood fungal disease that had been accelerating across Europe, was confirmed in the wider environment in England in November 2012, a few months after its discovery in imported nursery trees (Forest Research 2022).