News

Understanding the contribution of forests to human health and well-being

Active Forest Evaluation

Over the next two years, social scientists at Forest Research are working with Kew’s Learning and Participation staff and programme participants to co-design and carry out an evaluation of the Temperate House Activity Plan.

The Forestry Commission and Peatland Action are supporting Forest Research to investigate the effects of peatland restoration by deforestation on nutrient and carbon transport to surface waters.

Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) has provided funding to bring together a number of Scottish research organisations to establish a new virtual Centre of Expertise for Plant Health.

‘Putting woodland bats on the map’ – a collaboration between Forest Research and Bat Conservation Trust

Use of interactive mapping to aid stakeholder engagement in the Strathard Initiative

A novel research project at Alice Holt forest has unearthed the UK’s rarest earthworm. Current earthworm distribution records indicate that some UK species are rare or very rare. However, fieldwork conducted in November 2017 yielded three new records of the nationally very rare species Dendrobaena pygmaea, boosting the national records of this earthworm from six records to nine.

The plight of our most iconic native tree, the oak, is the subject of a film released in 2016.

Pioneering tree health partnership to continue thanks to funding boost

Research into the lifecycle of oak boring beetle Agrilus biguttatus

There is growing interest in working with natural processes (WWNP) to reduce flood risk. WWNP aims to protect, restore and emulate the natural functions of catchments, floodplains, rivers and the coast. It includes, for example, restoring peat moorlands, re-meandering rivers, targeting woodland planting and improving floodplain connectivity to help to reduce the flood risk to communities downstream.