Guidance

Fell diseased trees

Find out how to fell diseased trees to slow the spread of certain tree pests and diseases and to protect the wider treescape – what to do if you get a statutory plant health notice (SPHN) asking you to fell larch, sweet chestnut or spruce.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Forestry Commission
• Published: 31 August 2021
• Last updated: 5 June 2024 — See all updates

Why you should fell diseased trees

You must fell trees on a site that are infected with a pest or disease if you get a statutory plant health notice (SPHN) that tells you to do so. You may also need to fell surrounding trees and shrubs.

Your SPHN will tell you what you need to do and when to do it.

The trees and diseases you’ll get notices for are:

• larch with phytophthora ramorum
• sweet chestnut with phytophthora ramorum
• sweet chestnut with sweet chestnut blight
• spruce with spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus)

Felling helps protect a site and the wider environment by:

• containing a disease and preserving as many trees as possible on a site
• preventing a disease spreading from an infected site to others
• allowing a site affected by pests or disease to adapt, by felling affected trees
• making space to grow trees that might resist the disease
• protecting the environmental and public benefits on a site as a whole – for example, as habitats for wildlife or for the production of timber

Before you start

You must fell diseased trees if you receive a statutory plant health notice (SPHN) that tells you to do so. This will specify what you need to do and when you need to do it.

Before you start work, you need to get these permissions if they are relevant to your site:

• apply for consent from Natural England for work on or near a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)
• apply for consent from Historic England for work on or near a scheduled monument
• apply for a licence to disturb protected species
• apply for consent from the local council for work on a tree protected by a tree preservation order (TPO)

You’ll need to apply for a felling licence from the Forestry Commission if you’re felling trees outside of the SPHN boundary.

You may need to improve the access and infrastructure on site to allow felling and associated works to happen safely and efficiently.

Felling larch, sweet chestnut or spruce

You may need to follow special precautions to fell trees infected with these diseases and pests.

Phytophthora ramorum

Your SPHN will include specific instructions if it’s necessary to fell larch or sweet chestnut trees infected by Phytophthora ramorum to lower the risk of infecting other plants in the area.

Any felling licence applications for larch or sweet chestnut close to an SPHN may be delayed if trees:

• are or may be already infected with Phytophthora ramorum
• have dropped their needles in the autumn – this makes it harder to identify if a tree is infected, and increases the risk of accidentally transporting infected material

Sweet chestnut blight

Your SPHN will include specific instructions if you need to fell trees that are infected by sweet chestnut blight to lower the risk of infecting other plants in the area. This sometimes requires removal and destruction of the whole tree, including stumps and roots.

Spruce bark beetle

Your SPHN will include specific instructions to fell trees infected with spruce bark beetle. This may include removing all the bark from felled trees.

You must get advice from the Forestry Commission Tree Health team before doing any work on conifer species in the demarcated area which includes the proactive spruce removal area.

How to fell trees

You must not fell trees unless you have an SPHN or have a felling licence.

If you’ve received a SPHN, you must follow the instructions it gives you. For example, it might tell you:

• whether to fell a specific species or to treat it chemically
• what time of year to fell or treat
• how you must prepare the ground
• how you should cut trees or scrub – manually (with a clearing saw or chainsaw) or by machine (using a tractor fitted with a cab, or with flail if clearing scrub)

How to avoid transferring disease to other sites

You can prevent the spread of tree pests and diseases by following biosecurity precautions.

Your SPHN will also specify precautions you must take.

What to do with felled trees

Your SPHN will say whether the felled trees must be destroyed on site or can be moved. It will also give any conditions you must meet before trees can be moved. Whether you can move any part of the tree off site will depend on the:

• type of pest or disease
• the species of tree
• the setting (inside or outside of a woodland)

Selling timber and moving trees off site

You can sell timber from trees infected with Phytophthora ramorum if the trees are felled before the quality of the timber is affected.

It may be possible to use the timber from woodland trees affected by sweet chestnut blight or spruce bark beetle. Spruce with the bark on must not be moved unless you have permission from a Forestry Commission plant health inspector.

You must get advice from the Forestry Commission before moving any material off site. You can email the Tree Health team: THPilotenquiries@forestrycommission.gov.uk

You’ll need to apply for a movement licence from the Forestry Commission before you can move diseased timber. The timber can only be moved to a facility which holds a processing licence to handle it.

When you need plant passports

You will need a plant passport to move within Great Britain certain regulated species of:

• wood
• wood products – this includes chips, particles, shavings, sawdust, wood waste or scrap and some other types of wood product where there could still be a phytosanitary risk, even after processing
• isolated bark

The wood, wood products and bark that must have plant passports include:

• all conifers with bark and the isolated bark of conifer
• Castanea (sweet chestnut) with bark and the isolated bark of sweet chestnut

You’ll need to register as a professional operator with the Forestry Commission, if you want to issue plant passports.

If you have a question about the movement of regulated wood, wood products or bark within Great Britain

Email: plant.health@forestrycommission.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 067 5155

Plant passports and the proactive spruce removal area

You must not use timber plant passports to move spruce conifer material with bark that comes from the spruce demarcated area which includes the proactive spruce removal area for spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus). This must be authorised by a Forestry Commission plant health inspector.

All other non-spruce conifer species with bark, and certain other regulated species, originating in the proactive spruce removal area for spruce bark beetle, must be moved with a timber plant passport.

What to do with arisings

Arisings are the felled material left over from a tree after any timber is sold and removed, including branches and chippings.

Felled material from trees infected with Phytopthora ramorum should be left on site. Your SPHN will tell you if you need to do anything else.

Your SPHN will tell you what to do with arisings from trees affected by spruce bark beetle and sweet chestnut blight.

What to do with stumps

In woodlands treat chestnut and any large rhododendron stumps to prevent coppice regrowth. Larch and spruce species do not need this treatment.

In nut orchards or for amenity trees infected with sweet chestnut blight your SPHN will tell you how you must remove the stumps.

How to look after a newly felled site

After felling diseased trees, you should:

• allow remaining trees to regain their normal growth, to allow for landscape recovery
• restock any felled trees with trees that are appropriate for the site and more able to resist pests, disease and climate change – find out more about how to replace trees after felling
• control regrowth of any diseased trees and any damaging weeds – find out how to maintain new trees after restocking
• remove any non-symptomatic trees that are potential hosts for the disease, if agreed with your woodland officer, to reduce the risk of disease

Find out more about how to manage a site that’s been felled to control Phytophthora ramorum.

Published 31 August 2021
Last updated 5 June 2024 + show all updates

1. 5 June 2024

   Links added to page with 'proactive spruce removal area' map.

2. 31 August 2021

   First published.