The Forestry Commission has suspended the planting of Corsican pine - an important timber-producing tree – in the forests it manages because of the extent and severity of red band needle blight disease.
Pinus nigra subsp. salzmannii var. corsicana (syn. subsp. laricio) Corsican Pine, Calabrian Pine The moratorium will last for five years while further research into the disease is carried out.
The Commission will continue, for the time being, to make grant aid available to the private forestry sector to plant Corsican pine, and will continue to honour existing grant contracts for planting and restocking with it. However, it will advise private-sector forest managers applying for grants to use Corsican pine about the dangers of red band needle blight, it will fund planting only where it believes there is a reasonable prospect of the trees remaining free of infection, and it will keep the grants position under review.
Corsican pine (Pinus nigra ssp. Laricio) is an important softwood timber species grown in many parts of Britain, particularly in southern Britain.
Current quarantine controls applying to tree nurseries are being maintained. These require infected stock to be destroyed, and other pine species at the same nursery may not be moved until they have been found to be free of infection for one full growing cycle, which may be up to two years following first detection. The only exception is Scots pine, which may be moved if its place of production is clearly separated from infected parts of the nursery
In Britain, red band needle blight is caused by the fungus Dothistroma septosporum. When it infects certain species of pine it can seriously reduce growth and timber yield, and in severe cases it can cause trees to die.