Forestry Info/Pests & Diseases

Chainsaw Training with Phil Dunford

14.05.2013

Small woodland owner Sarah Walters of Alvecote Wood shares her experience on Phil Dunford’s chainsaw course.

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A Springtime Adventure in the Woods

21.04.2013

The weather this past few days has brought the woodlands alive! Full of bird song and snufflings, bees, butterflies, flowers and bud burst. I’ve been exploring…

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Looking Out for the rare Dwarf Birch

04.03.2013

What can we do to look out for the endangered, rare Dwarf Birch? by conservation biologist James Borrell

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Hope for the Threatened Ash – Lars Goran-Steiner, Forestry Research Institute of Sweden

19.11.2012

Lars Goran-Stener is a silvicultural scientist, working with Skogforsk, the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden.

He has kindly given SoW permission to publish the results of his research into genetic strains of Ash resistant to Chalara (ash die back), we’ve translated it from the Swedish below.

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Forestry Commission – you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

13.11.2012

My message to our new environment ministers is this:

Please, DON’T put an NGO between us and those we trust at the Forestry Commission. Particularly over something as important as tree disease and forest resilience to climate change.

Please, DO give the Forestry Commission the resources and freedom it needs to work with us, the public, to advance our multi-purpose forests into a financially and ecologically sustainable future we can be proud to leave our children.

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Zac Goldsmith & CRT call for action on all invasive pests & diseases threatening our trees, woods & forests

07.11.2012

… calling on the Government to invest more resources in the form of a Tree Protection Task Force, not just for short-term fire-fighting when a pest is already present, but for getting ahead of those posing future threats and developing long-term strategies to build greater resilience into our woods, forests and city tree-scapes

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Press Release: Forest Campaigns Network calls for United Action on Ash die-back tree disease

04.11.2012

The FCN calls on ALL organisations – Government departments and agencies, forestry professionals and businesses, the horticultural industry, charities, forest groups and the public – to work together to fight this disease and protect one of our most treasured native species.

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“Ash Die-Back” : Disaster or Opportunity?

26.10.2012

The traditional response to a disease outbreak is initially panic and then to respond with a raft of regulatory measures designed to drive the disease out of the country but…

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Efforts stepped up to tackle disease of ash trees (Chalara fraxinea, ash dieback)

25.10.2012

Disease found in East Anglia in trees not associated with recent plantings of nursery supplied plants… consultation to stop Ash imports through legislation ends tomorrow

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Alert for serious disease of ash trees – Chalara fraxinea (Ash dieback)

24.10.2012

Professionals in the forestry, plant nursery and tree-care sectors across the UK are on high alert for Chalara dieback of ash trees, a destructive disease only found here for the first time in 2012.

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A Woodland Culture

20.07.2012

As I step off the ride into the coppice I imagine a cowled and tonsured figure beside me. Here in Leigh Woods near Bristol we know from written records that the Monks of Leigh Abbey were managing these woods in just the same way at least 800 years ago.

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Fungi-jewels in the arboreal crown

09.04.2012

Antony Croft’s inspiring & very beautiful article on the ‘true masters of woodland ecology’.. fungi..

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Using Soft Power to Protect Trees by Christopher Neilan

28.02.2012

Chris Neilan is well known for creating the CAVAT system that works out the monetary value of urban trees explains the need to engage communities to protect tree & increase tree planting in their areas…

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Trees: Body language, Diagnosis, Biome-chanics- an open door to a wonderful world! by Claus Mattheck

16.02.2012

Prof Claus Mattheck is one of the most prominent ‘tree’ men in the world today. Having revolutionised the way an Arboriculturalist looks at a tree by using traditional mathematical and engineering principles and applying them to a visual examination of a tree.

He has taught us how to read a tree.

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Restoring Salcey Forest

24.11.2011

Rod Leslie talks of the 1990 clear fells in Salcey Forest and the learning curve that led the Forestry Commission to create ‘something quite unique…’

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Our Forests; Briefing note 2 – Ancient Woodland on the Forestry Commission Public Forest Estate in England

22.07.2011

Our Forests publishes the facts surrounding the management of Ancient Woodland by the Forestry Commission.

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I thought I’d lost our trees…

30.05.2011

Hen imagines our British Isles without The Oak to make it whole… Phytophthora Ramorum

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Forestry Commission 25% Cuts – Details

25.05.2011

*UPDATED 26/05/11* Download the FULL details here: FC-Cuts-Presentation-230511.pdf The Forestry Commission will be cutting 250 jobs and the 12 districts currently covered by the Forestry Commission will merge to form 5 or 6 districts. In simple terms… by 2015 our Public Foresters will be looking after larger areas with 23% less of a workforce.  All […]

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Tree Health Threats

23.03.2011

Our trees are not only under threat from, among other things, sale, fragmentation, the high speed rail link, bio-fuel, quarrying, climate change or poor management. They are also under the very real threat of decline from serious pests and diseases.

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