Dr Malcolm Smith

Dr Malcolm Smith was chief scientist at The Countryside Council for Wales, 1996-2004, and a board member of The Environment Agency, 2004-2010

A lesion on an infected Ash tree in Pound Farm Woodland on November 8, 2012 near Ipswich, United Kingdom. The Ash Dieback outbreak has the potential to devastate the UK's population of 80 million ash trees. The first confirmed case in the UK was in March 2012, and since then, dieback has been confirmed at a further 82 sites, with woodlands in Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent and Essex among the worst affected and has now spread to Scotland. Dieback is caused by a fungus Chalara Fraxinea and was first recorded in Eastern Europe in 1992, spreading over two decades to infect most of the continent.

Mourn the passing of the ash tree, but for conservationists, there is