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Date
5 November 2025
Reading Time
2 minutes
Last Updated
13 November 2025

Observatree volunteers recently joined us for a hands-on day learning how to identify key tree pests and diseases. Through a mix of training sessions, expert talks and lab tours, participants explored how to recognise symptoms in the field, report them through TreeAlert, and how to collect and submit samples to the Tree Health Diagnostic Advisory service.

The day was also a valuable opportunity for volunteers to meet members of the Tree Health Diagnostics team and see how their vital role fits into the bigger picture of protecting the UK’s trees.

Observatree is a collaborative partnership whose members include The Woodland Trust and several other key organisations working together to safeguard the UK’s trees and woodlands by connecting science with citizen action.

See how the day unfolded in our photo essay below, and a big thank-you to everyone who took part and to all the teams who made the sessions so engaging and informative.

Hand holding image of pests on leaf.
Sorting pictures of pests and pathogens into categories.

 

Three people discussing pictures of pests and pathogens laid out on a table.
Sorting pictures of pests and pathogens into categories.
One person looks at contents of a petri dish as a second person looks on.
Looking at cultured fungal pathogens sent into Forest Research and grown in the lab.
Two dead beetles in palm of hand.
Volunteers shown large pine weevils (Hylobius abietis).
Live beetles in palm of hand along with sawdust.
Volunteers shown Rhizophagus grandis beetles bred to be released to eat great spruce bark beetle larvae (Dendroctonus micans).
Two volunteers look at pinned insects in a case held by lab technician.
Looking at different species of bark beetles.
Bark beetles pinned with name labels.
Looking at different species of bark beetles which are part of the entomology reference collection.
Log with resin tubes caused by Dendroctonus micans.
Tree section showing great spruce bark beetle (Dendroctonus micans) symptoms.
Person holding bark sample in petri dish.
Bark sample showing tree’s mechanism for killing this bark boring pests through expelling resin resulting in pest drowning.
Person holding split log.
Log from Paddock Wood where Asian longhorn beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis)
infestation was discovered. Damage caused by Asian longhorn beetle larva can be seen inside log.
Lab technician holds trap as volunteers look on.
Volunteers are shown a cross-vane trap used to trap Ips typographus.
Volunteers gather round chatting to lab technician about samples. Microscope, pinned insect case and log in foreground.
Volunteers get to grips with samples in the lab.
Lab technician talks as volunteers listen.
Volunteers learn about developing biocontrols for pests in the lab
Lab technician looks at pathogen in petri dish.
Volunteers learn about processing fungal pathogens for identification in the lab.
Petri dish showing growth of pathogen.
Looking at cultured fungal pathogens sent into Forest Research and grown in the lab.
Person gives a presentation as others listen.
Learning about pests and pathogens.
Volunteers gather around table sorting pictures of signs and symptoms of pests and pathogens into categories.
Sorting pictures of signs and symptoms of pests and pathogens into categories.
Close up of white markings on black paper.
Print out of gel electrophoresis results showing successful PCR amplification of fungal pathogen DNA.

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