The ria oak project at Kings­wear has commendable objectives. Adding allotment-grown oak saplings to existing woodlands or, even better, extending them, is a splendid idea.

Care needs to be taken as to the species of oak we are dealing with locally.

The so-called ria oak is not a species but an oak that happens to be on the banks of a ria.

The local common lowland species is English oak, Quercus robur, also known as pedunculate oak.

Such local oaks have been under severe reproductive stress for decades since the 1970s arrival from France of the oak gall wasp, with the majestic name of Andricus quercuscalicis, but the less than majestic life cycle which converts developing acorns into knopper galls.

I have seen the ground under Dartmouth oaks in the autumn covered in knopper galls with hardly an unaffected acorn to be seen.

Such trees have near zero fecundity and the loss of natural regeneration will show in the fullness of time, decades into a century and more.

If the infestation is widespread, the project may have difficulty in sourcing suitable acorns. It may be that the project may come across a copiously acorned tree in the midst of those severely affected by the knopper gall wasp.

If so, treasure it, as you may have discovered a tree genetically unattractive to A. quercuscalicis, of significance to botanical science.

But it may be that the oak is not Q. robur, instead one of the many other species of oak not affected by the Knopper gall wasp, examples of which are scattered about.

The project intends to involve schoolchildren. To introduce them to the Knopper gall, with its extraordinary appearance, would be educational and quite exciting.

Brian Parker

Crossparks, Dartmouth