Since Bermuda's cedar blight of the 1940s — caused by an insect inadvertently imported to the Island on trees — the introduction of foreign species to the Island has been fiercely guarded against.

The cedar, which produces a highly-prized decorative wood, is considered by many to be the queen of Bermuda trees, a plant even more closely identified with the Island than the onion of palmetto.

But after nearly being wiped out by a plague six decades ago, it has teetered on the brink of extinction.

According to environmentalists, relatives of the endemic Bermuda cedar were brought over when the Island began to become affluent shortly after the First World War.

An imported scale insect which came with it caused a rapid and dramatic change to the look of the island, killing off forests as it decimated 95 percent of the national tree.

Quarantine regulations were then installed against the importation of soil to protect against the introduction of similar threats to our flora and fauna.