Guidance for people working in Phytophthora-infected woodland or working with wood from Phytophthora-infected trees.
Hygiene precautions
When operations are taking place in woodlands confirmed as having either Phytophthora ramorum and/or P. kernoviae, best practice should incorporate general hygiene precautions. This applies to all potentially damaging pests and diseases.
Phytophthora Control Sites - operational precautions
Simple measures to prevent spreading tree diseases. multimedia module
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Best Practice
- Ensure staff are aware of the guidance here.
- Carry the recommended bio-security equipment when visiting infected woodland.
- Any operator who, during the course of any forest operation, comes into contact with infected larch or rhododendron should ensure that before leaving the site, footwear, tools, equipment, plant and machinery are free from any soil and plant debris. Because this is common practice when moving machinery from site to site via main roads, it is suggested that it is also extended to all movements of plant, machinery tools and equipment within the forest boundary. This should be achieved by simple brushing to remove as much soil and plant debris as is reasonably practicable.
- In areas where either P. ramorum or P. kernoviae is detected, a statutory Plant Health Notice will impose measures including, in addition to the above, disinfection with an appropriate fungicide.
Guidance and advice
Financial support for owners and managers
Financial support may be available to owners and managers of larch woodland in England and Wales that must be felled in compliance with a Plant Health Notice. The support is available to help with (a) the costs of clearing infected, immature Japanese larch, and (b) to help with the costs of support services provided by an agent to private woodland managers required to deal with infected Japanese larch. (See Qualified agents below.)
Woodland Regeneration Grant gives details of supplements for replanting Phytophthora-infected sites in England, together with revised information on restocking standards and simplified grant rates.
In Scotland, grants are available for landowners to assist with the provision of services from qualified agents to give advice about dealing with the infected area and possibly organise clearance work. Grants are also available to assist with the costs of tree clearance.
Processing felling applications involving larch species
Guidance on replanting conifer and broadleaf species on affected sites.
Sites felled due to Phytophthora
Advice on helping to prevent spread or re-infection from ramorum disease, and on restocking (replanting) the woodland in England.
Collecting foliage of host plants from woodland
Policy on collecting foliage from P. ramorum and P. kernoviae host plants, such as rhododendron, growing in woodland in Great Britain.
Plant Health inspections
Guidance for Plant Health Inspectors - what to expect if a Forestry Commission plant health inspector needs to visit your premises.
Precautions when moving and processing wood
Control Sites - operational precautions - biosecurity precautions that must be taken when moving wood from woodland where Phytophthora infecton has been detected.
Precautions when moving sawn wood with residual bark
Instructions for handling sawn wood with bark.
Qualified agents
England - forestry agents qualified to provide advisory services to land owners and managers in England to help them comply with Statutory Plant Health Notices issued to control the spread of P. ramorum.
Wales
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