Previous work clearly showed that air-seasoned, British grown Scots and Corsican pine poles are subject to serious pretreatment decay. In order to control these infections a range of pretreatments are currently being investigated. One series of treatments is designed not only to control decay but also allow the development of mould and stain fungi in order to achieve the desired increases in porosity prior to creosoting. The trial is due to run for a total of 18 months. The initial results have been very encouraging and due to the considerable current interest in this area the results for 6 and 12 month samplings are presented in this short preliminary report to the sub-group. Simple borate treatments have effectively prevented the development of basidiomycetes but allowed mould and stain development. This has led to the subsequent, desired porosity increases and initial creosote treatments appear very good.

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