In recent weeks a small number of evergreen trees numbering fifteen, have been thinned along the walking trails in the Cnoicín area under license issued by the Dept. Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Walkers will see that in the areas where this limited thinning has taken place there are well established young native broadleaf trees coming along, mostly oak, ash and alder which were being overshadowed and would ultimately fail or be stunted by the competing longer established evergreens. By this measure the native trees will now have every opportunity to flourish and grow true and strong and it is expected that the next two years will see them largely fill any voids created. Happily both the oak and the ash are doing extremely well and given that the Island has to date escaped the fungal disease Ramularia which has badly affected escallonias on the mainland, there is a hope that we may also escape the catastrophic Chalara Fraxinea disease which has recently spread to Ireland and is badly affecting ash trees.