WE hope your readers will be glad to hear that ash dieback is not a death sentence as claimed in your article.

We don’t know the source of your information but we are happy to tell you that it is out of date and erroneous!

Read more: Temporary road closures to remove trees infected with ash dieback

Recent research has shown that far fewer trees die of ash dieback than previously thought.

In particular, older trees are very likely to survive. Even the Forestry Commission’s latest advice is to only cut trees down where safety is a serious consideration.

Pollarding or crown reduction is a much better option than the wholesale slaughter of this important native tree which has helped shape our landscape for millennia.

If we are to develop a resistant population of ash, we must save as many trees as possible.

All around the British countryside there are many unaffected trees which may provide the crucial resistant gene-pool for the future.

Over-enthusiastic felling could threaten the future of this iconic British tree which, surely, is something no-one wants to see.

Dr Tean Mitchell (Green Planet Media and the Sustainable Coppice Partnership) and Dr John Akeroyd (Flora Europaea and Fundatia ADEPT Transilvania)

Chalk Lane, Hindon