by Tom Walsh
An Ambleside holiday park is adopting an innovative tactic to help protect its trees from a conditional known as sudden oak death.
Residents and guests at Skelwith Fold Caravan Park are being asked to take home acorns to prevent the healthy saplings avoid being contaminated with the virus.
Sudden oak death is caused by the oomycete plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum and has the ability to kill oak and other species of tree.
It has previously had a devastating effect to forests in the US and staff are keen to prevent it happening in Cumbria.
The Westmorland Gazette reports that the holiday park is collecting acorns from the 130-acre wood to help prevent the spread of the disease which, despite its name, can strike during any season.
Owner Henry Wild recently collected the park’s latest David Bellamy Conservation Award and is committed to protecting the environment in which his park is situated and by doing this he believes it will prevent the death of many trees.
