smartphone users can send photos of ash dieback suspicion that destroyed millions of trees on the continent

The British public is invited to use their phones to help save the country's 80 million trees in the ashes of a devastating disease that has destroyed millions of trees across the continent and led a embargo on imports in force today.

Ash dieback, caused by the fungus

Chalara fraxinea

, was found last week in the UK for the first time outside the plantations and nurseries East Anglia, raising fears of a repeat of the Dutch elm disease, which has killed 25 million elms mature in 1970 and 80.

In an attempt to locate and help prevent the spread of the disease across the country, a team of developers and academics worked the weekend to create a demand for smartphone owners can use to report suspected cases of infection.

ash trees infected lesions are recognizable by the bark, dieback of leaves on the tree and the leaves turn brown - but experts say the arrival of autumn means that it more difficult to detect with accuracy

AshTag application for iOS and Android allows users to send photos and locations of observations to a team that refer to the Forestry Commission, which is leading efforts to prevent the spread of disease Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

The application follows similar steps citizen science, crowdsourcing applications for wildlife, as Pooter! to map the distribution of bees, and an application to the discovery imminent if a species of cicada in the New Forest are turned off or not. But its creators highlighted what was unusual was the speed and urgency with which they were created.

added that he hopes the technology could help prevent the Forestry Commission is "overwhelmed" by the false reports just "leaves".

Ren? Olivieri, president of Wildlife Trusts, to deal with dozens of nature reserves across the country, has teamed up with the Woodland Trust to ask the government to convene an emergency meeting to discuss stop the spread of the ash dieback and other diseases of trees.

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