SPLASH – Survey of Plants and Lichens associated with Ash (SPLASH)
Monitoring the impacts of ash dieback
The voluntary sector societies that record vascular plants (the BSBI), bryophytes (the BBS), and lichens (the BLS) have a rare opportunity to help monitor the impact of a potentially landscape-altering disease. To date, no other European country has attempted to do this, although there have been national surveys to map the extent of the disease. These three societies are currently working with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) on a Defra-funded initiative to pilot surveillance schemes designed to improve our capacity to monitor changes in the status of species within semi-natural habitats. There is potential to use this project to establish an approach to monitoring the biodiversity impacts of novel diseases such as ash dieback.
The aim is to set up a network of permanent plots throughout England, Scotland and Wales to monitor the impact of ash dieback disease on the ground flora and epiphytes (vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens) associated with ash in woodlands and other semi-natural habitats.
You can find out more on the website
The interim Chalara control plan produced by JNCC can be seen here
NBN Gateway data have been used to help inform the control plan and information on all the data sources used can be found here.