This piece is an extract from our A View from the Forest (previously Forestry Features) newsletter, which is emailed out at 4PM every Wednesday with a round-up of the week's top stories. 

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EVER since it arrived in the UK, the idea of the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle discovering a taste for Sitka spruce has been a haunting prospect for the nation's foresters. Those fears have now been realised.

For the first time, the pest – better known as Ips typographus – has been confirmed as having established on "a small number of cut and fallen spruce trees", which lay in close proximity to infested Norway spruce. Both infestations were within an already established demarcated area in West Sussex.

A serious threat to spruce trees in Europe, there has long been a feeling of apprehension as to just what Ips could do to Sitka, a vital species in UK forestry, accounting for around about 50 per cent of the country's commercial conifer planting. Such is the seriousness of the situation, the Forestry Commission is urging landowners in the south-east of England to "proactively remove spruce in the area and replant with other non-susceptible species".

All of this – coming shortly after the demarcated area was extended 100 miles north following a discovery of the pest in East Anglia – points to a troubling time ahead for the UK's commercial foresters.

Ips has had a devastating impact on many of Europe's woodlandsIps has had a devastating impact on many of Europe's woodlands (Image: SeanGallup)

However, perhaps all isn't lost. In a FC blog post, one of the country's most senior forest researchers outlined a few crucial developments in Ips' UK evolution.

1) How did it get here?
"During a large-scale dispersal event in 2021, beetles were found to have travelled more than 160 km into England assisted by suitable weather conditions and initiating many of the localised establishments of the beetle," Dr Daegan Inward, senior scientist at Forest Research, wrote. "This is the first evidence of a forest pest dispersing aerially across the Channel, and suggests that further incursions may be expected whilst continental populations remain high."

2) Can it establish on healthy Sitka spruce?
"To date, successful colonisation of live, healthy Sitka trees by Ips typographus has not been observed in the UK. Ips typographus struggles to establish in spruce woodlands that are in good health and contain no susceptible material after undertaking long-distance dispersals."

3) Is eradication possible?
"All evidence to date shows the eradication measures are working."

We'll all have to hope that Dr Daegan is correct.