Ash Tree Could Go Extinct in Europe, Researcher Warns

The European ash tree is facing extinction from the one-two punch of a fungal disease called chalara and the devastating appetite of the emerald ash borer, according to the BBC.

Chalara, first discovered in England as a stowfaway in a shipment of trees from Asia in 2012, has the potential to destroy 95 percent of the ash trees in the United Kingdom. It had already been attacking ash trees in Eastern Europe, and today it affects more than 2 million square kilometers (772,204 square miles) between Scandinavia and Italy, the BBC reported.

The emerald ash borer larvae bores into ash trees and kills the tree. The insect has not reached the UK yet, but it is traveling west from Moscow at a rate of 25 miles a year.

The combination of pestilence and pest could “eliminate” the ash tree from Europe, much like the elm was largely destroyed in Europe during the 1980s, according to research published in the Journal of Ecology by researcher Peter Thomas of Keele University.

The ash tree’s extinction would also impact about 1,000 species associated with ash trees, including 12 types of birds, 55 mammals and 239 invertebrates, the BBC reported.