The Forestry Commission has suspended the planting of Corsican pine due to the extent and severity of red band needle blight disease. The pines are important for timber-production, but the moratorium will last for five years while further research is carried out. Any nurseries with infected stock will have to destroy the trees and sales of all conifers apart from Scots pine will be stopped for two years.

Red band needle blight is caused by the fungus Dothistroma septosporum and it can seriously reduce timber yield – or even kill trees. Infected trees initially display yellow/tan bands and spots on the needles, which turn red. Needle ends then turn rusty brown whilst the bases remain green. The infected needles are shed in late summer, leaving the branches with only tufts of foliage – known as "lions' tails" - at the ends. The fungus is worst in areas and years of high spring and summer rainfall, because it thrives on humid conditions in the forest canopy (the downpours of June and July are thus likely to have exacerbated the problem). The severity of the disease seems to be reduced by thinning to allow greater air movement in the canopy to reduce humidity.

Corsican pine (Pinus nigra ssp. Laricio) is an important softwood timber species, particularly in southern Britain. The worst affected area is East Anglia, where more than 70 per cent of Corsican pine trees are thought to be infected, but the disease has also been identified across the whole country.

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