Deadly tree disease ravages woodland

Trust have to cut down thousands in bid to halt spread

- RAMAZANI MWAMBA

AN infectious disease has been ravaging trees at a country park.

A number of popular footpaths have been closed as one of the country's biggest tree felling operations is taking place at the Walker Fold Woods in Horwich.

Around 8,000 trees are being felled at the estate as the Woodland Trust looks to combat the spread of a deadly tree disease.

The infectious disease, which devastates native trees, is known as Phytophthora ramorum.

Following felling, logs are being moved by expert horses and then picked up by a skyline which carries them 330 metres across the valley.

The work follows the Woodland Trust being issued with a Statutory Plant Health Notice from Forestry England ordering it to fell the affected larch and Sitka spruce trees, each attacked by a fungal like organism which spreads easily between tree plantations.