Tree inoculations used to save historic elms from disease
Trees will be inoculated to protected against elm disease.
Around 1,400 trees across Brighton and Hove, Sussex, will be injected with an organic, non-toxic control agent next month.
According to the local city council, this has been designed to protect them against the disease for the next 12 months.
The authority has been battling to protect its historic elms for over three years and will expand its programme next month to target a wider area.
Last year, the council was forced to fell 30 trees after a 'higher-than-usual outbreak' threatened over a third of its 17,000-strong population.
Alan Robins, a councillor and cabinet member responsible for trees, said: 'We face an ongoing battle against elm disease in Brighton and Hove. Inoculating hundreds of trees will help to protect them for another year.
'We carefully select important areas of the city where we know inoculations will have the greatest effect – especially when it comes to protecting some of the older and historically significant elms we have.'
The council has stressed that felling is only carried out as a last resort, but residents have been critical of the disruption and environmental impact already caused by the initiative.
In February, 150 ash and elm trees were felled, which posed an 'urgent safety issue'.
John Marten, a Hollingbury resident, told BBC Radio Sussex at the time: 'We're worried that there is no felling licence in place for this work.
'There are protected species in these woods and we're worried that the work is destroying the breeding ground for these creatures.'
But Mr Robins rejected the claims and said: 'We do not breach any wildlife legislation regarding protected species.
'We've been liaising with the Forestry Commission to continue with our public safety works.
'We have plans to plant trees all over the city.'
The council said the plan for the current inoculation was non-toxic and has no effect on people or animals.
The trees will be injected with a biological vaccine called DutchTrig over the first two weeks of May. The vaccine contains a type of fungus that induces a defensive response, which is spread by the elm bark beetle.
The vaccine cannot prevent the spread through root transmission.
Devastated tree populations
Elm disease has devastated tree populations since it arrived in the UK in the 1960s. It is a fungal disease that is spread by elm bark beetles or underground via the root.
Infected trees start to display symptoms in early June with the disease season lasting until September.
Early infection presents as wilting foliage turning brown or yellow, as it progresses the foliage will thin.
The scheme will be continued in the areas of Old Steine, Pavilion Gardens, Victoria Gardens, Valley Gardens and The Level, among others.
As part of the expansion, trees in Queen's Park, Hove Park, Hove Rec, St Ann's Well Gardens, Saunders Park, Blakers Park and Wish Park will also be inoculated.
Residents have been warned to remain vigilant when buying logs for fuel, avoiding any supplier that cannot guarantee the wood is not elm.
The council said that elm taken out of the city should also not be sold or returned as fire wood as it could house the beetle and become a breeding site.
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