Britain's trees are evolving resistance to the deadly ash dieback fungus, scientists have revealed. The disease, which arrived in Britain in 2012, has wrought havoc on the countryside, leaving behind the skeletal remains of dying ash trees. Previous estimates predict that up to 85 per cent of ash trees will succumb to the disease, and COBRA have held emergency meetings about how to deal with the issue. But now, experts have discovered that a new generation of ash trees, growing naturally in woodland, exhibit greater resistance to the disease compared to older trees. They found that natural selection is acting upon thousands of locations within ash tree DNA, driving the evolution of resistance.

Drone footage taken by the National Trust has revealed the extent of the devastation being wrought on British woodlands by ash dieback, a deadly fungal infection. The shots taken this autumn show trees dying in Hanging Wood, part of the Trust-administered Hughenden Estate in Buckinghamshire. Some 300 ash trees on the estate will need to be felled this year in the interests of public safety -- with many more left to decay and create homes for wildlife. However, the Trust warned, this is a mere fraction of the 40,000-odd trees that will need cutting down in total across the lands they manage in the UK. Ash dieback -- though to have originated in Asia before spreading as a result of the global plant trade -- is caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus.