We have done a lot of hedge laying here in the last 20 years and would leave a nice ash to grow on for a tree rather than an oak as oak are very numerous here, really hacked me off having to cut down a lot of the trees I had left, why do we import these things, Britain is an island yet we seem to get everything goingwe get a continuation of elm saplings, when they get to 6/7 across, they die. Make good logs though, well seasoned. Those big old elms, were truly massive, some well over 100 foot high, sold all the decent trunks, some were hollow, but they were sods to split for logs, twisted and knotty, dad went out and bought a log splitter, in the end. We have got used to them being gone, plenty won't even remember them, 45/50 yrs now, but it is going to look very different, if, as it looks like, the ash goes as well. Oaks are in danger as well, l believe, so what can we plant to replace.
And when those ash go, we will get accused of 'prairie' farming, no doubt.