Volunteers needed to help monitor health of oaks in new research project

Scientists at Forest Research and Aberystwyth University, in partnership with Sylva Foundation, are asking woodland owners and managers to take part in an important new research project aiming to monitor the health of oak trees across the UK.

Native oak trees — keystone species in many woodlands — are under threat from environmental change, and in some places by Acute Oak Decline (AOD), Mildew, Insect defoliation or honey fungus. We are interested to understand where and how these factors are impacting oak health.

Acute Oak Decline (AOD)

AOD can be diagnosed by a depleted oak crown, black stem bleeding, and D-shaped emergence holes (left by the Agrilus biguttatus beetle). The disease can seriously diminish health and resilience of infected trees. AOD can spread within a woodland once introduced and exacerbate existing stresses.

Can you help?

We are looking for volunteers to assess five or more oak trees, between June and August. Using a purpose-built web app, volunteers can help by assessing each oak tree which should take no more than 5 minutes. The data will then be shared with researchers via Forest Lab.

Take part

To take part, create a free account on Forest Lab, which is part of the myForest platform run by Sylva Foundation. The Forest Lab component exists to provide technology and tools to help land managers share data to inform environmental science, and to improve knowledge exchange between scientists and land managers.

Full details about how to take part and data privacy are provided at sign-up.

Once signed up to myForest navigate to ‘Lab’ > ‘All projects’ > ‘Oak Health Project’ to submit your assessments.

Join myForest