Plant health

 

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PLANT HEALTH AND FORESTRY

Nearly 90% of Britain's timber requirement is imported, mainly from Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Canada and Russia. In addition, a vast range of other commodities are imported into the country every day and nearly all of these have wooden packaging material of one form or other associated with them. While some goods are carried on high quality pallets, much of this packaging and the loose wood used to wedge cargoes (or dunnage as it is known), is made up of low quality wood which can often present a high plant health risk.

The importation not only of timber, but also of other goods presents a risk to British forests and woodlands because imported wood may carry tree pests which are not currently present in GB, but which could easily establish populations in our growing forests. These pests have the potential of killing large areas of forest or seriously damaging other woodland and amenity trees. Dutch elm disease is a reminder of how such an introduction can dramatically alter our landscape.  Asian Longhorn Beetle is causing significant damage to New York's and Chicago's trees.  More recently this pest, a native of China, has been found in Austria, France and Germany.  In all cases, wooden packaging is believed to have been the pathway.

The aim of the Plant Health Service is to protect the forests and the timber industry of Great Britain and the rest of the EU. To do this, we draw up and apply rules on both the import and export of forestry material (trees, timber and timber products) and the movement of this material within the EU. The rules which we make are usually based on EC law.  The Plant Health (Forestry) Order 2005 is the statutory instrument which sets out import controls.  See information on all current forestry Plant Health legislation. Statutory Instruments can be viewed on the TSO website by clicking on the link to the right.

In order to prevent the introduction of new plant pests into this country and to control the spread of pests which already exist here, we:

• inspect shipments of timber, timber products and any goods in wooden packing which arrive in Great Britain from countries outside the EU;
  
• maintain a register of GB traders moving timber and timber products within the EU;
  
• carry out national surveys of forests to ensure that no new pests have been introduced and to establish the extent of spread of pests already here;
  
  
• place controls on the movement of timber and timber products from infested areas to non-infested areas within the EU.

The Plant Health Service is at the Forestry Commission's office in Edinburgh, where the Head of Plant Health and Operations Manager are based. There are two regional officers who support Plant Health Inspectors over the whole of Great Britain. Their regions are North, (Scotland, North England as far south as the counties of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire excluding Humber ports and North Wales) and South (all counties of England south of those mentioned and South Wales) . We keep our clients informed of the rules and other significant items of interest by publishing regular Plant Health Newsletters. We aim to publish these at six-monthly intervals. We also publish a range of advisory leaflets and posters, which can be ordered, usually free of charge, from the Plant Health Service at the Forestry Commission Edinburgh Office.