Trees photo gallery

Autumn glory - but are London's trees dying?

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Tree threat

Bleeding Canker is threatening London's Horse Chestnut trees.

Horse Chestnut trees are an iconic part of the capital's landscape and give us our much loved traditional game of conkers.

But disease is now threatening the trees' survival.

The drought in Summer 2006 has left the trees weak and susceptible to attack by the leaf minor moth.

Worse still, they have become prone to bleeding canker.

The moth is ravaging the horse chestnut leaves, while the canker is causing pussy sap lesions on their trunks.

Inside Out London talks with tree experts Andy Tipping, Head of the London Tree Officers' Association and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Gardens Advisor to Historic Royal Palaces, about the history of this majestic tree and the impact these diseases will have on London.

Under threat

Andy Tipping is responsible for recording the health of many of the Horse Chestnut trees and does so by giving the tree, a sort of 'pregnancy test'.

A fragment of the lesion is mixed with alcohol and then a small amount is tipped into a testing device which displays the result.

While the Horse Chestnut is not native to Britain, it has become almost naturalised.

"They are the largest flowering trees, and are evocative of the English countryside," says Todd.

Crushing Conker news

Conker fights, now banned by several schools due to concerns over health and safety, are also under threat if these beautiful trees are eaten away by disease.

Conker crisis - smaller and fewer conkers this year

Already their large green leaves are falling early, and conker aficionados are reporting fewer and smaller conkers this year.

One conker fan noted that they "are coming down earlier than they should, and the conkers have been quite small".

For many old and young conker fighters these diseases are troubling.

"London without its conker trees would be a sad place," said one contestant at Camden's Conker Championship.

Watch Inside Out London on October 23 to find out more about how these diseases are affecting London's Horse Chestnuts.

Links relating to this story:

• BBC Inside Out London
• Royal Parks
• London Tree Officers' Association
• Forestry
• Syon Park

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Watch the show again

From pooh to paper... recycling the elephant way!

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Ellie Pooh Paper

Fancy writing on pooh paper?

Woburn Safari Park along with Frogmore Mill have developed an interesting way to raise money for Indian Elephants.

They are making recycled paper with Elephant pooh and selling it to the public.

Frogmore Mill is a non-profit charity and all its products are recycled.

It has been converting products for over 100 years and can take very diverse products - one of them is Elephant pooh, which is dried and mixed with other waste paper.

Woburn Safari Park supply the dung for the Ellie pooh paper.

Elephant dung

Lynn Thomas is a keeper at Woburn and collects about two dustbins full of elephant dung a day:

"Asian elephants are very endangered - a lot of elephants who used to be in logging camps have been made redundant so they're not breeding replacements," says Lynn.

As houses are built closer to the forests, more elephants are being killed.

"Elephants are going where the houses are and causing a lot of damage, they're getting shot, they're getting blown up, just to try and keep them away," explains Lynn.

Ellie Pooh paper is named because it appeals to children and makes recycling paper seem fun and marketable.

Money from the novelty paper will go back into projects to help the elephants in India, and Lynn hopes it goes to veterinary medicine, care or food.

Links relating to this story:

• BBC London - Inside Out
• The Paper Trail
• Woburn Safari Park

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Teenage pregnancy

Teens and toddlers - helping young mums

Recent government statistics estimate that teenagers living in the London borough of Southwark have almost a one in ten chance of becoming parents.

In recent years teenage pregnancy levels have soared, particularly amongst black Caribbean and mixed raced girls.

Health Chiefs are so concerned they've demanded local authorities do more to tackle the problem.

Teens and Toddlers is a new scheme introduced to Southwark.

Fourteen-year-old girls spend two hours a week for 18 weeks working in the school nursery looking after children.

The aim is to show teenagers the reality of bringing up children and therefore intervening before they fall pregnant.

With the increasing number of teenage pregnancies, only time will tell if initiatives like Teens and Toddlers are enough to solve the problem.

Links relating to this story:

• BBC Inside Out London
• Southwark Borough Council
• Brook London
• Teens and Toddlers
• Parentline Plus

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites