Europe's pine may be wiped out, say experts

Barry Hatton, The Guardian 18 Aug 08;

Europe's pine forests are at risk from a killer bug that has already caused ecological catastrophes in east Asia, experts believe. Tens of thousands of trees have already died in Portugal and officials fear that pine wilt disease, which has become out of control in the south-west corner of the continent, could spread further.

Two species of pine are susceptible: maritime pine, which makes up almost a quarter of Portugal's forests, and Scots pine, the most widespread pine species in Europe, often used for Christmas trees.

The European commission has already imposed tight restrictions on the export of Portuguese pine, which must be disinfected and given a clean bill of health before leaving the country. But Roddie Burgess, the head of the Plant Health Service for the British government's Forestry Commission, who has been studying the disease for more than 20 years, fears the bug's spread across Portugal. "Given the scale of the problem ... it's going to be very difficult to get on top of this," he said.

The nematode bug swarms through a pine tree's innards and kills it within weeks by choking off the flow of sap. It is carried in the respiratory system of a flying beetle and was first detected in the Setúbal region, south of Lisbon, in 1999, when 340,000 trees died in two years. Experts think the beetle arrived in wooden crates at a nearby port.

The disease wiped out Japan's vast pine forests in the 1970s.