Trees checked for killer disease

Forestry experts checking trees in Nottinghamshire for a killer disease have given Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest the all-clear.

Sudden Oak Death has killed thousands of trees in the United States.

The checks were carried out on oak trees after a strain of the disease was recently found in Cornwall.

Paul Berwick, district forester at Sherwood, said that following a series of checks, the trees have been given a clean bill of health.

Resistance level

One of the first signs of the disease is that during the summer months the trees display autumnal colours.

Katie Palmieri, from the California Oak Mortality Task Force, where thousands of trees have died from the disease, said each tree has its own level of resistance.

"It can be as short as a couple of months, but usually it's six months to a couple of years that the tree takes to die."

The disease was first spotted in the UK in 2002, and several other cases of the fungal disease were found in Cornwall earlier this autumn.