The discovery of ash dieback in the UK: the making of a focusing event

ABSTRACT

Why did the identification of ash dieback (Chalara Fraxinea) in 2012 in the UK catch the national media, public, and political zeitgeist, and lead to policy changes, in a way that no other contemporary tree pest or pathogen outbreak has? The identification of ash dieback in the UK is conceptualised as a successful ‘focusing event’, and the ways in which it was socially constructed by the media, stakeholders, and the government are analysed. National newspaper coverage contributed to the way that the disease was understood and was significant in driving the political response. Ash dieback’s focal power derived from the perceived scale and nature of its impact, the initial attribution of blame on government, the war-like response from the government, and Ash’s status as a threatened native tree. The ash dieback focusing event has increased the salience of plant health issues amongst policymakers, the public, and conservation organisations in the UK.

KEYWORDS:

• Ash dieback
• tree disease
• focusing events
• plant health

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a small grant from the School of Social Sciences, History, and Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The UK government’s emergency committee, which is convened during national crisis, is known as ‘COBR’ after the ‘Cabinet Office Briefing Room’ where it meets. Its composition depends on the issue being discussed.

2. Between 2009 and October 2013, about 16,000 hectares of Japanese larch trees in the UK had been felled or were under notice to be felled due to Phytophora ramorum infection (Forestry Commission 2014b). Oak Processionary Moth poses a threat to both oak trees and human health, and was first identified in London in 2006. It continues to be actively managed, and the cost for the government in 2013 was estimated at £1.15 million (OPM Advisory Group 2014). Acute Oak Decline is on the increase and can kill affected mature oak trees within four to five years of the onset of symptoms (Forestry Commission 2014c). Asian Longhorn Beetle kills species of broadleaved trees in countries where it has become established: an outbreak in Kent in 2012 appears to have been successfully controlled, but the management involved the removal of 2166 trees (Forestry Commission 2014d).

3. However, in Bikland (1998), the word potential is left out without explanation for the difference with Birkland (1997), although the definition and the theoretical position appear the same.

4. They go on to outline the Narrative Policy framework as a quantitative, structuralist, and positivist approach to the study of policy narratives.