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We must decide the areas in which ash trees are to be preserved

Strategy to slow ash dieback disease.

   7:00AM GMT 03 Nov 2012

   Comments Comments

   SIR – The United Kingdom boasts several internationally significant
   populations of ash that require the highest levels of protection. These
   will be lost if we do not urgently put in place a strategy that targets
   these areas, at least to slow progress of the ash dieback disease.

   Top of the list must be the Lake District, which includes significant
   numbers of ash in ancient semi-natural woodlands and many hundreds of
   ancient pollards. Pollarding (lopping branches off trees at a height of
   10 or 12ft above ground on a regular cycle) is integral to the
   traditional silvo-pastoral system practised for centuries throughout
   the region.

   In valleys such as Borrowdale, there are specimens hundreds of years
   old which provide a habitat for rare lichens, birds, bats and
   invertebrates. They are as much part of the landscape as the lakes,
   Herdwick sheep and vernacular architecture.

   Our experience with Dutch elm disease, foot and mouth, and red squirrel
   conservation, tells us that core populations need to be identified and
   targeted at the earliest possible stage in an outbreak.

   Edward R Wilson
   Forest Scientist Director
   Silviculture Research International
   Penrith, Cumbria
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   Ibrahim Hewitt
   Senior Editor, Middle East Monitor
   London NW10

   The right side

   SIR – As a poppy seller, I am often asked which side a woman should
   wear hers. I always say the right side. However, more women seem to be
   wearing them on the left. Can anyone tell me the correct side?

   Anthony Messenger
   Windsor, Berkshire

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   because they are afraid of recriminations.

   This fear is all the more reason to support the Liverpool Care Pathway.

   The timing of when to introduce the Pathway is critical; it is not
   guesswork, as has been suggested. It is about sound clinical judgment
   that comes with experience. Healthcare workers should have the common
   sense and sensitivity to obtain consent from relatives in advance, and
   to ensure that relatives understand that the pathway is about relieving
   pain and suffering so that there can be dignity as life ebbs away.
   Relatives should be encouraged to understand the needs of the dying and
   not their own needs.

   You give examples of the Pathway being withdrawn and a patient living a
   further two weeks. However, no mention is made of the suffering that
   the person almost certainly experienced before finally dying. Who
   benefited from those two weeks? I am sure it was not the patient.