Aerial survey tackles tree disease

The flights involved experts taking hundreds of aerial images of local woodland to spot tell-tale signs of infection caused by a fungus-like pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum (P. ramorum), which kills larch trees very quickly.

The disease was first discovered on larch in the UK in 2009 in South West England and has since spread to many parts of western Britain, including Cumbria and Lancashire.

Although no sites have been confirmed on the east of the Pennines, forest chiefs say there is no room for complacency. The crew on the helicopter surveyed the Yorkshire Dales, Cleveland, Hambleton and Howardian Hills, major forests such as Cropton and Dalby, near Pickering, and through the Vale of York.