Do not buy illegal Ash Flooring

Here at the Solid Wood Flooring Company, we never use Ash wood to make our wood floors. Ash is under threat as a species and illegal shipments from Europe and further afield could threaten it’s future even more.

We only use Oak, Walnut, Maple and Bamboo Timbers for our floors

Ash is suffering hugely from a number of diseases, such as chalara and Ash dieback, and bugs that mean 90% of the UK’s Ash trees could be wiped out in the near future.

In a recent article by John Vidal in the Guardian, he writes, “According to the Forestry Commission, ash dieback disease is progressing steadily through Britain. It affects the crown of trees at first, and then slowly kills the whole tree. Trees’ susceptibility to the disease depends on stress caused by drought or extreme climatic conditions.

“We don’t yet know what the full impact of chalara will be in Britain,” said the commission. “Evidence from continental Europe suggests that older, mature ash trees can survive infection and continue to provide their landscape and wildlife benefits for some time.”

But a new threat has been identified in the harmful Asian Emerald Ash Borer Beetle. The Borer beetle is ‘moving uncontrolled’ through Russia having established itself in US and Canada.

The beetle could find its way onto the UK mainland in imported goods such as firewood or even cheap flooring boards coming from and through the Ukraine or Baltic countries near Russia.

John Vidal continued in his article that the “tiny beetle could wipe out Britain’s ash trees much faster than the established ash dieback disease which is expected to eventually kill millions of the trees, according to the government’s leading authority on pests and pathogens threatening UK forests.

“The emerald ash borer is moving uncontrolled through Russia. It flies long distances, moves quickly and can reproduce in the UK,” said Nicola Spence, chief plant health scientist. The beetle has not has yet arrived in the UK, but she warned: “There is a high risk of it being introduced and establishing itself.”

“According to the Forestry Commission, the borer beetle, which is native to Asia, kills trees in two to three years and has established itself across many thousands of square miles of the US and Canada.

It has also reached the Moscow region of Russia where it is spreading west and south at a rate of 25 miles a year. It is likely to have arrived in North America in imported wooden packing material.”

The full article was posted on the Guardian website on Wednesday 4th November

Our team of experts can help you identify where all our floor boards are from, and we only use FSC or PEFC Certified Wood Flooring. We are proud supporters of the WWF UK’s Save The Forest campaign