An island tree expert has warned that the Isle of Man’s environment will suffer from the loss of trees due to disease.

Consultant arborist Ben Brooker, who runs the environmental initiative ‘Manx Roots Tree Management’, believes that more needs to be done to help the island’s environment after the disappearance of ash and elm trees.

Mr Brooker claims that additional planting is needed, as was identified in the government's climate change plan, but isn't materialising.

Talking to Manx Radio, he said: ‘We're really badly hit in the Isle of Man, as is the UK and most of Western Europe, by Dutch Elm and Ash Dieback disease.

‘Both are fungal pathogens, or fungal infections, and they disrupt the flow of water from the roots to the crown, causing the leaves to wilt and fall off very quickly.

‘This means there are no leaves and no photosynthesis, which leads to a rapid decline and death of the tree.

‘Ultimately, we're expecting to lose 90 percent of all of our ash trees in the coming years. In fact, I'm struggling to find any ash trees that aren't infected at the moment, which is probably the same level of elms being lost - if not more following the cuts to DEFA’s Dutch Elm management budget.’

Hundreds of trees were brought down during Storm Darragh in December, which saw wind speeds reaching 80mph.

The damage was further exacerbated by Storm Ewoyn in January, where wind speeds at the top of Snaefell exceeded 100mph.

The aftermath of Storm Ewoyn, described as one of the worst storms to hit the island in recent memory, is still being dealt with weeks later.

‘I don't think anything could have been done to stop the spread of the diseases,’ Mr Brooker added.

‘The Isle of Man Government did a fantastic job for a very long time managing Dutch Elm Disease, and we were one of the very few places in the British Isles that still had mature elm trees.

‘We took them for granted really, but it got out of hand and they became very difficult to manage.’