Project to raise awareness of Assynt's endangered wych elm trees
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Moves are being made to raise awareness of endangered wych elm trees in Assynt.
The area is home to around 100 ‘significant’ wych elms which are feared to be at risk of Dutch elm disease.
The disease, a beetle-borne fungus, was accidentally imported into the UK from Canada in the 1960s.
It has already affected wych elm trees elsewhere in the country and is spreading northwards as the climate warms, with Assynt seen as a “last refuge”.
Culag Community Woodland Trust has now launched the Assynt Elm Project with funding support from the John Muir Trust and Forestry Scotland.
A workshop was held at Inchnadamph on Monday by forest researcher Euan Bowditch and photographer Chris Puddephatt to teach people how to identify, photograph and help protect the trees.
A tree planting ceremony ‘Hope for Elms – portraits and planting’ will take place at Little Assynt Tree Nursery on Thursday, January 18, with botanist Dr Max Coleman from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and artist Isabel MacLeish.
Local primary school children and other volunteers will plant saplings that have been grown from collected local elm seed.
It is also hoped that a ‘resilient’ seedling from a breeding programme at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh will be planted.
Dr Mandy Haggith, who is campaigning to raise awareness of the Assynt’s wych elm trees, said everyone could help by burning any stored elm logs where beetle larvae may be hiding and by learning to recognise the tree and signs of the disease.
Dr Haggith can be contacted at: hag@mandyhaggith.net or 07734 235704.
To see Mr Puddephatt’s gallery of elm images, visit: https//buff.ly/3/uyz4zn
