Bonkers it's the end of the Conkers !!!

Conkers to run out within 15 years !!!! and it doesn't look like its due to Brexit (phew sigh of relief)

http://news.sky.com/story/conker-trees-could-vanish-from-uk-in-15-years-10617877

   This story really concerns me for a couple of reasons. I grew up with older brothers and a conker tree at the end of the front garden, so grew up playing conkers. To lose them is to lose the opportunity of my children having similar childhood memories, or is it?

   I've noticed and discussed with people in the area the brown leaves of the Horse Chestnut tree and until now we have been at a loss, but we now understand what is happening to the trees themselves. a moth from Europe (oh hold on! more immigrants from the borderless Europe, thought we'd voted to keep them out?) well it's their caterpillars that are causing the problem eating the leaves from the inside out causing them to go brown early and conkers not to form fully. Combine this with mature trees being cut down due to their size or potential danger of diseased limbs and that these trees are not being planted as they used to be due to their relatively short lifespan (apparently it's councils according to the article) and we have less and less conker trees with a prediction of no more in 15 years time. 

 So back to the game of conkers I remember from my childhood. 

It must have been 4 years ago when I took my 2 sons to collect some conkers I had spotted next to the road in Bolehall, I took them home, bored a hole in them and mounted the conkers on a boot lace. The next hour was a series of

"what do we have to do?"

"I can't do it"

"he won't let me hit his"

"dad can you take me out to get some too"

Fun was clearly being had by all. I posted a comment on my facebook wall about the boys playing conkers and quickly got a comment "Have you Health and Safety checked this game?" this was tongue in cheek comment but I wonder what truth was in the comment. since then I hadn't thought about it until a few weeks ago. 

 Again this year I walked out with my 8 year old to collect conkers near Ninefoot park, we found loads just on the path. This surprised me as its a route for school kids so I asked my kids why there would be so many.  The answer I got was shocking, the kids just pick up the fallen green spikey cases, throw them at the floor to see them split and then leave the brown shiny conker. It appears to me that this may satisfy a short attention span and a sense of destruction but it goes no further. I actually wonder if these kids actually know how to play conkers, why have their parents not shown them? maybe their parents didn't know, maybe I hadn't realised how lucky I was a s a kid to have a conker tree at the end of my front garden, the things I have taken for granted. 

I wonder how many people are as panicked as I am about the end of the conker, maybe my concern is just because this great tree produces conkers rather than the environment, It's amazing what people think is the most important issue of the day. 

I may write a blog about the oak trees challenge with Knopper Gall wasps and Clanker later this week. 

When I grew up we were warned about rain forests being destroyed and the next ice age or global warming, I don't remember worrying about our own woodlands and parks, our mighty oak and the horse chestnut tree. 

so what shall I do?

A)collect conkers and teach kids to play?

or

B)collect conkers and plant them?

or

C)maybe both A&B